WEIPA

Aboriginal community and mining town, northern Queensland, Australia, on the northwestern coast of Cape York Peninsula; it lies on Albatross Bay at the estuaries of the Hey, Embley, and Mission rivers, facing the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1802 the explorer Matthew Flinders noted the red cliffs that extended for 100 mi (160 km) along the coast. It was not until 1902 that these reddish deposits were identified as bauxite, the ore of aluminum. When their potential as one of the world's largest reserves (estimated at 3,000,000,000 tons) was recognized, exploitation began, and the town of Weipa was built, beginning in 1956, to house the workers. It was the first settlement established in the area since a Presbyterian mission station had been founded there in the 1890s. Almost 10,500,000 tons of ore are taken annually from the opencut mine and conveyed to ships in the bay; about one-half goes to aluminum refineries at Gladstone (Queensland), and the rest is exported to Japan, Europe and North America. The town, with air connections to Cairns, 400 mi southeast, derives its name from an Aboriginal term meaning "hunting ground." Pop. (1981) 2,433.