He began his working life as a stockman at the Fort Constantine station before going to Mount Elliott on the Cloncurry copper fields.

[2] At the 1920 Queensland state election he won the seat of Mundingburra for the Labor Party[6] and represented the electorate for the next 24 years.

He was made Minister for Transport in June 1932 but it was just three months later that he was seriously injured in the rail motor accident, something that he never fully recovered from and forced his resignation from the ministry in 1939.

[1] His worsening health, both physical and mental, plus the splitting of his political base over the Aid-to-Russia issue led to his defeat at the pre-selection ballot for the 1944 state election.

In the 1930s, Dash dispensed political patronage to unionists and party members in his constituency by placing them in jobs on the northern railways which helped his re-election in 1941.