It began as a small working men's camp, where the fettlers (railway workers) lived in concrete buildings without family.

Lower Southern Arrernte and Luritja people established a camp in the sandhills nearby, trading dingo scalps, wild flowers, artefacts and other items for water and food.

[6] A police station was built in the late 1930s, after the Charlotte Waters one closed down and the policemen, trackers, their families and some "aged and infirm" Aboriginal people moved to Finke.

[citation needed] In 1947, the first pub, Finke Hotel, owned by Ted Colson (who had been the first European person to cross the Simpson Desert), was opened.

An air strip, which gave access to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and race track were built by the Aboriginal residents.

[6] In the 1960s, the Aboriginal population of Finke rose as drought and government patrols moved nomads off traditional hunting grounds, and there less work on cattle stations owing to changes in the industry.

[6] The Aputula Housing Company, founded in the 1970s, has played an important part in the economy, and was run by local people as well as a group of Torres Strait Islanders who moved inland after the war.

Finke police were also responsible for inspecting stock, registration of births, marriages and deaths, looking after mines, protecting birds and collecting taxes.