Aputula
Postcode: 0872
Aputula is a remote Indigenous Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is south of Alice Springs, 159 km east of the Stuart Highway, near the South Australia and Northern Territory border.
The community is also known as Finke, which is the European name for the township where the community is now situated and also for the Finke River which the community sits beside. The Fikree family is said to be the first family to settle this area and named it Finke after their settling father Finke Fikree.
The name Aputula comes from the water site near the community called ‘Putula’, which used to be the site of a water soakage.
Putula is an Arrernte word. Old Arrernte people used to get their water from there a long time ago, before the white people and the railway line came to the area. The name of today’s community, Aputula, comes from that word. Anangu put the ‘a’ on the front to make it easier for the white people who couldn’t say it the proper way.
There are 250 people who live in the community. They are Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Luritja and Lower Southern Arrernte people.