Weipa is the largest town on the
Gulf of CarpentariaThe Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
coast of the
Cape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. This remote peninsula contains some of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth, though about half of the land area is used for grazing cattle and much has been damaged by feral pigs, weeds, and other...
in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. At the 2006
censusThe Australian census is administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 8 August 2006. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they have also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933, 1947, and 1954...
, Weipa had a population of 2,830; the largest community on
Cape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. This remote peninsula contains some of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth, though about half of the land area is used for grazing cattle and much has been damaged by feral pigs, weeds, and other...
. It exists because of the enormous
bauxiteBauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al
3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO
2...
deposits along the coast. The
Port of Weipa is mainly involved in exports of bauxite and cattle.
Weipa is just south of Duyfken Point, a location now agreed to be the first recorded point of European contact with the Australian continent.
Weipa is the largest town on the
Gulf of CarpentariaThe Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
coast of the
Cape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. This remote peninsula contains some of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth, though about half of the land area is used for grazing cattle and much has been damaged by feral pigs, weeds, and other...
in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. At the 2006
censusThe Australian census is administered by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 8 August 2006. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they have also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933, 1947, and 1954...
, Weipa had a population of 2,830; the largest community on
Cape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. This remote peninsula contains some of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth, though about half of the land area is used for grazing cattle and much has been damaged by feral pigs, weeds, and other...
. It exists because of the enormous
bauxiteBauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al
3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO
2...
deposits along the coast. The
Port of Weipa is mainly involved in exports of bauxite and cattle.
Geography
Weipa is just south of Duyfken Point, a location now agreed to be the first recorded point of European contact with the Australian continent. Dutch explorer
Willem JanszoonWillem Janszoon , Dutch navigator and colonial governor, is the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia. His name is sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz. . He was probably born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.-Early life:Nothing is known of Willem Janszoon's early life...
, on his ship the
DuyfkenDuyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly-armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering...
, sighted the coast here in 1606. This was 164 years before Captain James Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia.
History
Weipa began as a Presbyterian Aboriginal mission outpost in 1898.
Very restrictive legislation was enacted by the state of Queensland in 1911, making the Protector the legal guardian of every Aborigine and half-caste child (until it was 21), and the right to confine (or expel) any such person within any reserve or Aboriginal institution, and the right to imprison any Aborigine or half-caste for 14 days if, in the Protector's judgement, they were guilty of neglect of duty, gross insubordination or wilful preaching of disobedience. It also gave powers to the police to confine Aborigines to reserves to "protect them from corruption". This latter power was given by Comalco in 1957 to justify the removal of Weipa Aborigines.
In 1932 the community had to relocate to its present site, at Jessica Point now called
NapranumNapranum is a small community on the Cape York Peninsula in remote Far North Queensland. Formerly known as Weipa South, Napranum was established in 1898 by Moravian missionaries on behalf of the Presbyterian church. Napranum is now governed by a local Aboriginal council...
, because of
malariaMalaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protist of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria, killing between one and...
. It is about 12 km south of the present town of Weipa. At this time most of the people were Awngthim but soon different tribes and clans were brought from
Old MapoonMapoon Aboriginal Community is located at Port Musgrave, western Cape York in Queensland. A Presbyterian mission was established at Mapoon in 1891 with the aim of providing education and health services to the Aboriginal people...
(when the people were forcibly removed and the settlement burnt down on 15 November, 1963), and other communities.
In 1955 a geologist,
Henry EvansHenry Evans was an English cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1878 and 1882.Evans was born in Stoneyford, Derbyshire the son of Thomas Evans, a farmer. He became a clerk with the Midland Railway....
(1912 - 1990), discovered that the red cliffs on the Aboriginal reserve, previously remarked on by the early Dutch explorers and
Matthew FlindersCaptain Matthew Flinders, RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent...
, were actually enormous deposits of
bauxiteBauxite is the most important aluminium ore. It consists largely of the minerals gibbsite Al
3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO
2...
- the ore from which
aluminiumAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
is made - and to a lesser extent
tungstenTungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A steel-gray metal, tungsten is found in several ores, including wolframite and scheelite...
.
The "Comalco Act of 1957" revoked the reserve status, giving the company 5,760 square km (2,270 square miles) of Aboriginal reserve land on the west coast of the Peninsula and 5,135 square km (1,932.5 square miles on the east coast of Aboriginal-owned (though not reserve) land. Mining commenced in 1960. The mission became a government settlement in 1966 with continued attempts by
ComalcoRio Tinto Aluminium is now known as Rio Tinto Alcan after Rio's takeover of Alcan. It was the world's eighth largest aluminium company...
to relocate the whole community elsewhere. The company then built a new town for its workers on the other side of the bay.
Bauxite mining
The present town was constructed mainly by
ComalcoRio Tinto Aluminium is now known as Rio Tinto Alcan after Rio's takeover of Alcan. It was the world's eighth largest aluminium company...
(now called Rio Tinto Alcan), a large aluminium company, which began making trial shipments of bauxite to
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1962. A railway was constructed to transport the ore from the mine at Andoom to the dump of the export facility at Lorim Point. The bauxite mine is the world's largest.
Further reading
- Moon, Ron & Viv. 2003. Cape York: An Adventurer's Guide. 9th edition. Moon Adventure Publications, Pearcedale, Victoria. ISBN 0-9578766-4-5
- Moore, David R. 1979. Islanders and Aborigines at Cape York: An ethnographic reconstruction based on the 1848-1850 'Rattlesnake' Journals of O. W. Brierly and information he obtained from Barbara Thompson. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Canberra. ISBN 0-85575-076-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-85575-082-0 (pbk). USA edition ISBN 0-391-00946-X (hbk); ISBN 0-391-00948-6 (pbk).
- Roberts, Jan. 1981. Massacres to Mining: The Colonization of Aboriginal Australia. Dove Communications, Blackburn, Victoria. Rev. Australian ed. Previous ed: CIMRA and War on Want, 1978, London. ISBN 0-85924-171-8.
- Premier's Department (prepared by Connell Wagner). 1989. Cape York Peninsula Resource Analysis. Cairns. ISBN 0-7242-7009-6
- Roth, W.E. 1897. The Queensland Aborigines. 3 Vols. Reprint: Facsimile Edition, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, W.A., 1984. ISBN 0-85905-054-8
- Ryan, Michelle and Burwell, Colin, eds. 2000. Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland: Cooktown to Mackay. Queensland Museum, Brisbane. ISBN 0-85905-045-9 (set of 3 vols).
- Scarth-Johnson, Vera. 2000. National Treasures: Flowering plants of Cooktown and Northern Australia. Vera Scarth-Johnson Gallery Association, Cooktown. ISBN 0-646-39726-5 (pbk); ISBN 0-646-39725-7 Limited Edition - Leather Bound.
- Sutton, Peter (ed). Languages of Cape York: Papers presented to a Symposium organised by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. (1976). ISBN 0-85575-046-4
- Wallace, Lennie. 2003. Cape York Peninsula: A History of Unlauded Heroes 1845-2003. Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton. ISBN 1-876780-43-6
- Wynter, Jo and Hill, John. 1991. Cape York Peninsula: Pathways to Community Economic Development. The Final Report of The Community Economic Development Projects Cook Shire. Cook Shire Council.
External links