Welcome to Weipa

Tourist & Information Guide

Visit Cape Picture Gallery

We hope you will enjoy your stay in our town and we invite you to make full use of all the services and facilities that Weipa provides.

The people who call Weipa home are friendly so please don't hesitate to ask one of us should you require assistance during your visit.  Weipa is also the home of the world's largest bauxite mine and this is operated by Comalco.

You will find that the majority of goods and services that you will need are available here in Weipa.  While you are enjoying your stay, soak up the sun and fine weather of our 'northern winter'.  Most visitors are pleasantly surprised at the range of services and facilities on hand.  If you are just calling in for that urgently needed spare or reprovisioning, you will find a well-stocked community with ample supplies.  For thos few things not immediately available, a range of freight and postal services exist to assist you in a hurry.

Weipa is approximately 804km north/west of Cairns and can be reached by the Peninsula Development Road or by QantasLink daily service from Cairns. Weipa a town of approximately 3500 people is the site of the world's largest bauxite mine which is operated by Comalco Mining & Refining. The lands surrounding the town of Weipa are not public open spaces.  This does not mean that visitors are restricted to staying in Weipa but visitors must obtain permits to enter DOGIT land.  Access to many areas can be gained by obtaining the appropriate permit via the applicable Community Councils: www.mapoon.com www.aurukun.com www.napranum.com Camping permits may also be obtained from Weipa Camping Ground or phone 07)  4069 7871.  Permits are available for designated areas only.  Camping outside these areas is not permitted.

FISHING AND CAMPING NEAR WEIPA The fishing and camping surrounding Weipa is fantastic for the well-equipped tourist.  A number of the most popular camping and picniking spots hve been highlighted on the Weipa Region Map above. The mouth of the Pennefather River is an attractive area for camping and there are many white sand beaches on the coast south of the river.  There are no public amenities at these locations, so the camper should be well-prepared.  Above all, please do not leave litter in these popular recreation areas.  Always remember, crocodiles are a real danger at deep water holes and around northern coastal waters generally.  This is regardless of whether camping at a location is a common practice or not. A pleasant swimming location closer to town is Vyses Crossing which can be reached in 20 minutes by car.  There is a  barbeque area at Vyses Crossing.  However, later in the dry season, the creek may not be flowing. There is also a boatramp to launch boats near the Andoom Creek Bridge. You can hire a boat or organise a trip with one of the many local tourist operators to capture a seafood delicacy worth 'an arm and a leg' in a southern restaurant.  In fact, throw a line from almost any beach and you could be lucky.  Another fantastic alternative is to do it yourself and rent a houseboat from Weipa Houseboats. Closer to Weipa, the fishing in the Hey, Embley and Mission Rivers is second to none. DON'T MAKE A TIP OF THE TIP! TRAVELLING ON FROM WEIPA If you are intending to drive to Mapoon or Stones Crossing, your journey will start by crossing the Andoom Bridge and turning right just before the Andoom mine. This area is know to be quite boggy during the wet season but is generally still accessable to the avid 4WD enthusiast.

ROCKY POINT

The township development began in 1965 at Rocky Point.  The original single persons quarters, married quarters, two pre-schools, school, hospital and police station are still located here at Rocky Point, as has one of Weipa's boat ramps.

At Rocky Point you will also find the Town Office, Community Centre which serves a fantastic coffee and Hibberd Library the home of the Cape York Collection.

TRUNDING

Trunding is the site of the second neighbourhood development for Weipa and where the newer Comalco housing can be seen.  Also at Trunding is the Albatross Hotel and two of Weipa's excellent sporting facilities - the Golf Club and the Weipa Bowls Club.

NANUM

Weipa's Heritage Shopping Centre, McNamara Shopping Centre, Heritage Resort, sporting complex and camping ground are all located at Nanum.  Across Central Avenue from Nanum is the Lions Park and an interesting collection of machinery known locally as the 'Mining Museum'.  The machinery here dates back to the Wenlock river gold rush days and was rescued from the bush.  A pamphlet about the 'Mining Museum' is available from Town Office.

From Nanum, an unsurfaced road provides a scenic route to Evans Landing via the western end of the Weipa Peninsula and passes the man-made lakes, Lake Patricia and Lake McLeod.  These are fresh water lakes formed from a shallow sub-aquifer water table, which rose to flood a mined area.  During the following dry seasons, deepening of the lakes was carried out and today these provide a pleasant recreational area.  Please note, camping is not permitted in this area and on occasion during wet seasons crocodiles are sighted, so check with a local before swimming.

EVANS LANDING

Evans Landing was the site of the pilot Benefication Plant and the original Shiploader, which were in use from 1962 to 1967.  At the same time, and later, Evans Landing was home to the contractors working on building and expanding the operation.  Recently Evans Landing has been developed as Single Accommodation for employees of the NeWeipa Project.

Today, Evans Landing is a light industrial/retail area and the location of the Western Cape Cuultural Centre which overlooks the Embley River near the fishing wharves and boat ramps, here visitors can gain an insight into the history of Cape York and its Indigenous people.

LORIM POINT

Comalco's administration offices, supply warehouse, workshop and processing area, powerhouse, shiploading facility and import wharf can all be found at Lorim Point.  The majoroty of this area is closed to unauthorised traffic with the exception being John Evans Drive.

NAPRANUM

Napranum or Weipa South is a community of people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island origins.  Aborigines and Islanders make up about 25% of Weipa's population.

SERVICES & FACILITIES

ROCKY POINT Town Office Hibberd Library and Cape York Collection Swimming Pool Community Centre Pottery Shop Playgroup Dentist Private Doctors Police Station Hospital	CENTRAL AVENUE Real Estate Office Weipa Bulletin Weipa Business Equipment Courthouse House on the Hill Dance Academy Girl Guides BMX Track Western Cape College (Weipa Campus)
EVANS LANDING Goodline Fabrications Service Station Weipa Seafoods Weipa Hardware/Mitre 10 Weipa Smash Repairs Evans Landing Wharf Tuxworth & Wood Freight Weipa Earthmoving Rob Roy Earthmoving Asset Services NQ Blasting & Coating Kowari Motors Pty Ltd Weipa Welding	NANUM HERITAGE SHOPPING CENTRE Woolworths Betta Electrical Weipa Bakery Fez Cafe Video 2000 Albatross Bottleshop Asian Takeaway Weipa 4WD & Camping Heritage Hair & Beauty Arrow Discounters MCNAMARA SHOPPING CENTRE Queensland Country Credit Union Weipa News & Sports Chemist Diamonds & Gold Gifts/Video Weipa Travel Post Office
BOUNDARY ROAD Weipa Servicentre St Joseph's Catholic Church	TRUNDING Albatross Hotel/Motel Carpentaria Golf Club (Deano's Restaurant) Weipa Bowls Club

MINING AREAS

The Comalco mining operation is clearly evident before you reach the first haulroad crossing, please take care around mining operations and comply with all signage.  Private vehicles are not permitted to enter mining or plant areas. 

Do not drive (or walk) on the haulroads or the walls of tailings dams.

Please note there is no public access to Lorim Point Export Wharf or
Humbug Point Import Wharf.

On no account should you attempt to cross the railway line.  The ore trains that use this line travel at speeds of up to 80kph, the locomotive weights 150 tonnes and pulls 33 cars with 100 tonnes of bauxite in each when they are fully loaded.  A fatal accident occurred in 1977 when a traveller attempted to cross the line.  We do not want another fatal accident.

FIRE ARMS

No firearms are to be discharged within 50 kilometres of the Weipa township.

FIRES

Open fires are not permitted except in fireplaces provided.  Always ensure that your fire is fully extinguished before you leave it.

Please do not throw lighted cigarettes or matches out of your vehicle.  Remember, fire can be fatal to humans as well as native animal life, and can cause extensive damage to the bush and regenerated areas.

SWIMMING

Estuarine crocodiles, marine stingers, venomous sea snakes and sharks inhabit the waters around Weipa - for your own safety, do not swim in the rivers or the sea.  The town swimming pool at Rocky Point is available to visitors during normal opening hours.  Lake Patricia and Lake McLeod are used regularly for swimming and sailing, but not power boats.

BE CROCODILE WISE

Crocodiles inhabit all the waterways around Weipa.

In areas where estuarine crocodiles may be present you should:

• be aware of crocodiles - keep your eyes open
• do not feed or otherwise interfere with crocodiles, small or large
• avoid areas where large crocodiles or their nests have been seen
• camp at least 50m from the water's edge
• stand a few metres back from the water's edge when fishing and don't stand on logs overhanging deep pools
• do not clean fish, prepare food or engage in other activities on the waters edge and adjacent banks
• dispose of food scraps and animal carcasses (including fish) away from areas where people gather
• swim only in areas of shallow rapids well away from deep water
• swim in groups rather than alone
• keep arms and legs inside boat hulls
  

MINING

The Weipa mining operation by Comalco is conducted on a mining lease of around 2,590 square kilometres (1000 square miles).

The larger part of the operation mines bauxite, using an open-cut method, washes and grades the bauxite, pumps fine material in a slurry to large settling dams and loads the washed bauxite into bulk ore carriers (around 70,000 tonnes capacity) for shipment to Gladstone and overseas ports.

Bauxite is mined on the Weipa Peninsula and at Andoom, which is connected to the Peninsula by road and railway line, running noth over the Mission River Bridge.  The mining area, which is closed to unauthorised traffic, extends from just north of the Andoom Creek Bridge.

The regeneration of the areas affected by the various activities is an integral part of the overall operation.

HISTORY OF THE WEIPA REGION

THE ABORIGINAL HERITAGE

The Aboriginal people have inhabited the Australian continent for a period estimated to be at least 40,000 years.

Apart from occasional contacts with Dutch and English seafarers, the Cape York Aborigines' traditional hunting and gathering existence continued until the late nineteenth century.  A 1900 report by W.E. Roth, Nothern Protector of Aborigines, on the tribes occupying the country between the Batavia (Wenlock) and Embley Ricers indicates that the Aborigines skilfully utilised the products of their environment.  Birds, kangaroos, turtles, fish and shellfish were animal food sources, while plant genera such as Acacia, Bombax, Dioscorea, Eucalyptus, Livistona, Macaranga, Melaleuca and Parinari not only provided food but also medicines, shelter, weapons, clothing and water-craft.

A remarkable feature of the Weipa area is the mounds of cockle shells (anadara granosa) which are located adjacent to the Pine, Mission, Hey and Embley Rivers.  Archaeological research indicates that these shell mounds are amoungst the largest in the world and were formed between 2,000 and 400 years ago by successive generations of Aborigines.  The mounds are protected as archaeological relics under the Queensland Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1967-1976 and have been entered in the Register of the National Estate.

In the 1870's and 1880's the development of the beche-de-mer, pearling and pastoral industries greatly increased contact between Weipa Aborigines and Europeans.  The fishing industries actively recruited Aboriginal labour, with little government supervision.  Aborigines were seomtimes kidnapped, often misunderstood the nature of their future employment and were unable to communicate effectively with either their English speaking employers or government officials.  Friction and violence arose on the fishing vessels due to callous treatment by European and 'Malay' fishermen.

Eventually, after deaths on both sides, officials such as the Honourable John Douglas, Thursday Island Government Resident (1885-1904), endeavoured to protect the Western Peninsular Aborigines by encouraging the Presbyterian Church to establish a chain of mission stations.  The first of these was opened by Moravian missionaries Reverend J.N. Hey (pronounced Hi) and Reverend J.G. Ward at Mapoon in 1891, to be followed by Weipa and Aurukun.

Rev. Hey sought to extend the influence of the mission farther downt he coast, so he set out in September 1895 with a Mapoon Aborigine and a Thursday Island prospector to find a suitable station site.  He rode via York Downs, and was accompanied from there by surveyor J.T. Embley.  The party came upon what is now known as the Embley River near Brownstone Creek and followed up the south side in an unsuccessful search for a site.  Retracing their steps, the group finally found a good locality where Spring Creek enters the Embley River, about 20 miles (32kms) inland from the coast.

History does not relate whether the area was named Weipa by the Mapoon Aboriginal guide or if Hey's informant was a member of the local tribe.  Hey wrote later that Weipa (pronounced Waypa) meant 'hunting ground'.

A few years elapsed until the necessary finance was obtained to create a new Weipa Mission Station.  Construction began on 10th June, 1898 with the arrival of Reverend Edwin Brown and seven Mapoon men.  Rev. E. and Mrs Thekla Brown had served as assistant missionaries at Mapoon from April 1896.  They ministered at Weipa from 1898 until 1918, when they returned to England.

Weipa Mission grew as tribespeople from as far away as Mein Telegraph Station and Pine River gradually came into the community.  The mission was regularly visited by people from Mein, York Downs, Merluna and later, Batavia Goldfields as it was their nearest point to off-load supplies brought in by boat from Thursday Island.  The missionaries attempted agricultural development, handcrafts such as crochet and leather work and after 1910, a small sandalwood industry.

Difficulties with infertile soils, intermittent water supplies, termites, malaria and the tortuous shipping channel forced missionary Reverend S.E. McKay to seek an alternative location at Jessiva Point (Napranum) on the Embley River.  The move was effected in 1932 and the name of Weipa Mission Station was carried to the new site.  Four years before the transfer, Weipa people had witnessed the arrival of the motor car.  Although their missionary had driven a car from Laura to Weipa, the first 'tourist' car to call in on its way to the tip of Cape York was an Austin Seven driven by Hector MacQuarrie and Dick Matthews.

The next twenty-three years saw the consolidation of Weipa, largely under the guiding hand of Superintendent J. Winn.  The Second World War introduced new experiences to the mission people.  Sixteen men volunteered for active service.  Twice during the war, men from the mission travelled many kilometres by canoe and dinghy across crocodile and shark infested waters to rescue stranded United States Army Force bomber and fighter crews.  A propellor from one of these aircraft, a Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, may be seen at the Weipa airport.  The first airstrip at Jessica Point was constructed by hand in 1942, under the direction of James Winn.

This became an important link with the outside world, particularly aerial medical services.  Until the 1950's, the main means of transport of people and goods continued to be by coastal steamer from Cairns to Thursday Island then by sailing lugger to the Gulf mission stations.

Winn's annual reports indicate that he strived to develop small-scale argricultural and pastoral industries, but they did not supply much more than the consumption needs of the mission itself.  In spite of the missionaries' efforts, there was little capital available for development works and the lack of skilled staff for training inhibited the availability of permanent work and industrial experience for the Weipa Aborigines.

NOTE:  This section is based upon information held in the Cape York Collection at the Hibberd Library, Rocky Point, Weipa.

EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT & DEVELOPMENT

Willem Jansz, captain of the Duyfken made the first recorded sighting of the Australian coast at the Pennefather River, some 40 kilometres north-east of Weipa, in 1606.  The earliest English visitor to the area was Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N., who sailed the Investigator into Albatross Bay on the Bay and named Duyfken Point in the ship's log the sighting of 'some reddish cliffs' south of the Bay at Pera Head.

Remoteness from markets, poor soils and the rough terrain of northern Cape York Peninsula discouraged overlanders and settlers for most of the nineteenth century.  The ill-fated Edmund Kennedy (1848) and pastoralists Frank and Alex Jardine (1864-65) were the only explorers on northern Cape York until the 1870's.  In 1863 a Queensland Government Residency was established by John Jardine at Somerset on Cape York's north-eastern extremity, to provide a port for passing shipping, and a strategic defence post.

The first European settlement in the Weipa area was by James Burne who took up Batavia Downs in 1882.  This was followed by the Sudley cattle property, by Cox and Lakeland in 1884.  An official Government survey of these runs was conducted by J.T. Embley in 1885-86.

For years after Weipa's establishment C.F.V. Jackson, assistant Queensland Government Geologist, referred to the presence of 'brown pisolitic ironstone' between Mission and Embley Rivers, but follow-up investigations were not carried out.  Prophetically, Jackson wrote:

But I think it probable that if these deposits were systematically examined and sampled, they would be found to include masses of higher-grade ores; and, if such were the case, they might ultimately prove of some value, especially on account of their ready accessibility from the sea.

Substantial deposits of gold were discovered on the Batavia (Wenlock) River, 140 kilometres south-east of Weipa in 1910.  By 1940 the field had yielded 40,700 fine ounces of gold.

In 1947, Dr. F.W. Whitehouse collected samples of good grade bauxite at the mouth of the Archer River, to the south of Weipa.  As a result, a geological survey was again considered but this was abandoned when samples requested from the three mission stations happened to be low grade.

It was not until 1955 that the significance of Weipa's reddish cliffs was recognised by geologist H.J. Evans.  While leading a party on a reconnaissance of possible oil-bearing structures, he skirted the west coast toward the end of his expedition 'just to see what the country looked like'.

Mr M.A. Mawby (later Sir Maurive) of Consolidated Zinc Pty. Limited had suggested to Evans that bauxite and phosphate be looked for as they are minerals which concentrate in a lateritic environment, such as at Weipa.

On July 16, that year, Evans discovered a large outcrop of bauxite near Weipa.  HJe continued to collect ore samples over a widespread area before returning to Melbourne.  When analysis revealed the ore to be high grade, he returned to continue exploration, guided by a local Aboriginal elder, Matthew.  He examined 84 kilometres in a three-metre dinghy.

Realising the significance of the deposit he noted in his diary:

As the journey down the coast revealed miles of bauxite cliffs, I kept thinking that, if all this was bauxite, then there must be something the matter with it, otherwise it would have been discovered and appreciated long ago.

Enterprise Exploration Pty. Ltd., a subsidiary of Consolidated Zinc, was responsible for the subsequent proving operations.  In June 1956, the first Enterprise employees arrived on board the coastal vessel, Wewak.  By August, development of a base known as Top Camp had begun eas of today's Napranum township on the banks of the Embley River.  At the end of the year, Consolidated Zinc formed a new company called Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation Limited to develop the Weipa deposits.  The Comalco is derived from the initial letters of the company.

Exploration and planning activities to confirm the viability of the Weipa depsoit were largely complete by 1961.  The first trial shipment of 9,849 tons of bauxite was sent to Japan on the Chusenu Maru in April.  Within five years, a new town was built at Rocky Point while bauxite processing and shipping facilities were constructed at Lorim Point.  The first shipment of 10,000 tons of Weipa bauxite to the Gladstone alumina refinery in December 1966, marked the second significant step towards establishing a fully integrated aluminium industry in Queensland.  The final step was achieved in 1984 when Comalco, with partners, commenced aluminium production at its smelter near Gladstone.  All of this enterprise is linked with Harry Evans' great discovery in 1955.

If you require an additional information or would like to particpate in www.weipa.biz please contact traceycasey@bigpond.com

Other Interesting Cape York Links:

www.frogandtoad.com.au/qld/cyp/weipa/index.html

www.mapoon.com

www.napranum.com

www.aurukun.com

www.westerncapeartists.com