Weipa
Situated on Awngthim country on Cape York Peninsula's west coast just south of Duyfken Point on Albatross Bay at the estuaries of the Hey, Embley and Mission Rivers, around 640 kilometres northwest of Cairns and 235 kilometres south of Thursday Island, the town of Weipa developed after New Zealand geologist Harry Evans discovered the world's largest bauxite deposit (estimated at three billion tonnes) while exploring for oil in 1955.
Earlier, Matthew Flinders had noted the area's distinctive hundred-mile-long reddish cliffs on during his 1802 circumnavigation of Australia. The cliffs were identified as a bauxite deposit around the turn of the 20th century, but earlier investigations delivered poor samples that generated little interest.
At the time, the bauxite deposit lay within the boundaries of the former Presbyterian mission established in 1895 by Nicholas John Hey at the junction of Embley River and Spring Creek and subsequently relocated to Jessica Point (now Napranum, formerly Weipa South) in 1932.
A £50 million project to develop a bauxite mine to be operated by the Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation Pty. Limited (Comalco) saw the area needed for the township, mine and treatment works at Kumrunja (Rocky Point) on the south side of the Mission River excised from the existing Aboriginal Reserve — which became Weipa South and later Napranum Aboriginal Shire— and the Cook Shire.
Today, Weipa Town, administered by the Weipa Town Authority under consists of two disconnected areas — the town itself, with a narrow connecting corridor to the harbour at Evans Landing and Weipa Airport.
Missing links:
Harry Evans
Nicholas John Hey
Spring Creek
Jessica Point
Comalco
Kumrunja (Rocky Point)
Evans Landing
Weipa Airport
