Weipa, Queensland

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Weipa
state = Queensland


caption =
lga = Shire of Cook
postcode = 4874
est = 1961cite book |title=Explore Queensland |last=Pengiun Books Australia |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2002 |publisher=Pengiun Books Australia |location=Camberwell, Victoria |isbn=0143000152 |pages=60 ]
pop = 3000
elevation=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = Cook
fedgov = Leichhardt
dist1 =
dir1 =
location1=

Weipa coord|12|36|S|141|58|E|type:city_region:AU-QLD|display=inline,titleis the largest town on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. It is sometimes considered to be the 'Capital of Cape York' and is a mining town of over 3,000 people that exists because of the enormous bauxite 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 Janszoon, on his ship the "Duyfken", 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. In 1932 it was moved to Jessica Point, now called Napranum, about 12 km south of the present town of Weipa.

In 1955 a geologist, Harry Evans, discovered that the red cliffs remarked on by the early Dutch explorers and Matthew Flinders were actually enormous deposits of bauxite - the ore from which aluminium is made - and to a lesser extent tungsten.

Bauxite mining

The present town was constructed mainly by Comalco (now called Rio Tinto Alcan), a large aluminium company, which began making trial shipments of bauxite to Japan 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 Heavy-duty Industrial Railway at Weipa" Buckland, John L. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, June, 1975 pp143-148] . The bauxite mine is world's largest. ]

ee also

*Weipa Airport

References

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

* [http://monolith.com.au/capeyork/drive-to-cape-york.html "A Cape to Adventure"] A description of a 4WD journey to Cape York by Roderick Eime
* [http://www.cooktowns.com/ Cooktown Shire Official web page]
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an21527894 Collection of photographs taken by Wolfgang Sievers in 1957 "Presbyterian Mission Station Weipa" held at National Library of Australia, Canberra]