Dawson is a rural locality in the Mid North region of South Australia, situated in the District Council of Peterborough.

It covers the entirety of the cadastral Hundred of Coglin, with the exception of the small town of Oodla Wirra.

[3] The government town of Dawson was surveyed in February 1881; it was often referred to as Coglin in its early years.

It was founded as part of an attempt to establish wheat farming north of Goyder's Line, but this proved unsuccessful in the long term, and the Crystal Brook-Broken Hill railway line bypassed Dawson, instead running further south through Oodla Wirra and Peterborough.

[11] At its peak, Dawson also had multiple stores, churches, an institute,[12] an agricultural bureau, and a blacksmith.