The mining town of Weipa has a population of over 3,000 people. Although geographically part of the Cooktown Shire (which covers 11,330,000 ha from Cooktown to the Cape) it is run by the Weipa Town Office. Under a 'special act' of the Queensland Parliment the town was given a Special Bauxite Mining Lease and was handed control of the Comalco Aluminium site. The actual lease covers an area of 2,590 sq klm.
The Weipa area was the first stretch of the Australian coastline ever explored by Europeans. The Dutch explorer Willem Jansz, sailing the Duyfken, first sighted the coast near Weipa in 1606. Matthew Flinders was the first person to note the possible mineral potential of the area. In 1802 while cicumnavigating Australia he noted that the cliffs around Albatross Bay had a distinctive reddish hue, this was in fact pure Bauxite. This mine is currently the largest Bauxite mine in the world.
Today Weipa is a mining town where Bauxite is mined, washed, graded and loaded for shipment to the aluminium processing plant at Gladstone.
The Weipa township is totally planned. It was built by Comalco and the state government in the early 1960's and the port of Weipa was officially opened in 1962. Since then the town has continued to expand. The town's newest area of Trunding lies south of the old settlement at Rocky Point.
The Weipa area offers great fishing and water sports, also the Comalco Mine Tour departs daily from the Weipa Camping Ground and takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete. Another interesting and strange phenonenom is the Weipa Shell Mounds, just south of town on the banks of the Embley. These mounds contain over 200,000 tonnes of shells, which seem to have been placed in the area over 800 years ago, no one has offered an entirely convincing explanantion to date.
There are a couple of caravan parks in Weipa, Hotels, Restaurants and the usual shopping and CBD areas. The Weipa Camping Ground is set on over 13 acres of grassed, shady surrounds and offers 96 powered sites and non-powered site, budget accommodation and self-contained units. Large modern amenities block, salt water swimming pool,bait and tackle and convenience store. Owner Maree is also a booking agent for the Comalco Mine tours, boat hire, fishing trips, croc spotting, scenic flights and permits issued to visit traditional Aboriginal homelands. For more information visit www.campweipa.com
