Harry Evans (geologist)

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Henry James Evans, known as Harry Evans, OBE (1912–1990), was a leading exploration geologist best known for finding the vast bauxite deposits at Weipa on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.

Born in Greymouth, New Zealand, he studied geology and began his career in mining and petroleum work. He worked for New Zealand Petroleum and later for the New Zealand Geological Survey. In 1946 he moved to Australia to join the Zinc Corporation (now Rio Tinto), where he searched for oil, gas, uranium, and potash.

In 1955 Evans led a group of American oil explorers to Cape York. Although oil prospects were slim, he collected reddish pebbles near Weipa that turned out to be bauxite. He returned with a boat and surveyed the coast, proving the enormous extent of the bauxite deposits around Weipa. His findings helped spark mining development and led to the formation of Comalco (Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation) in 1956, with refining and smelting operations later established in Queensland and other places.

The Weipa development brought large-scale changes for Aboriginal people, including dispossession and relocations as land was used for mining. Mining began in 1960, and the nearby mission became a government settlement in 1966, with Comalco relocating workers to a new town on the bay.

Evans later explored other areas, including a major bauxite discovery in Paragominas, Brazil, and he held senior roles in mining companies in Australia. He was honored as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 for his exploration work and received the President’s Medal from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1988. He died in Melbourne on 9 November 1990, aged 78.