Aurukun

About Aurukun

Aurukun is a town and Indigenous community on the far west coast of Cape York in Far North Queensland, at the mouth of the Archer, Watson and Ward rivers, about 100 km south of Weipa. It began in 1904 as the Archer River mission station, established by the Presbyterian Church, and most residents are Wik and Wik Way people. The name comes from the Aboriginal name of a large lagoon on the Watson River. Aurukun is one of only two Aboriginal communities in Queensland constituted as a local government area, and since 1987 it has been home to the Wik and Kugu Art Centre, the oldest art centre on Cape York.