[3] Napranum is on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula in remote Far North Queensland, adjacent to the town of Weipa and approximately 600 kilometres (370 mi) north west of Cairns, although the distance is 819 kilometres (509 mi) by road.

[5] Formerly known as Weipa South, Napranum was established in 1898 by Moravian missionaries on behalf of the Presbyterian church.

The Protector of Aborigines at the time, Archibald Meston, protested against the establishment of the Weipa Mission on the grounds that the people were healthy and could adequately sustain themselves.

Despite this, the mission went ahead inland near York Downs station to avoid contact with luggers, who were notorious for kidnapping Aboriginal people to exploit in their diving operations.

In 1955, a geologist, Henry Evans (1912–1990), discovered that the red cliffs on the Aboriginal reserve, previously remarked on by the early Dutch explorers and Matthew Flinders, were actually enormous deposits of bauxite (the ore from which aluminium is made) and to a lesser extent, tungsten.

[citation needed] In 1964, the Queensland Education Department provided the teacher for the school instead of the Mission Board.

[citation needed] In the 2006 census, the town of Napranum had a population of 830 people, of whom 778 (93.7%) were Indigenous Australians.

The nearest government primary and secondary school is the Weipa campus of Western Cape College in Rocky Point to the north.