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{{Infobox Australian place
| type = town
| name = Aputula (Finke)
| state = nt
| image =
| caption =
| coordinates = {{coord|25|34|52|S|134|34|40|E|display=inline,title}}
| pushpin_map_caption = Location in Northern Territory
| lga = [[Central Land Council]]
| postcode = 0872
| est =
| pop = 250 
| pop_year = ? estimate
| pop_footnotes = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oric.gov.au/publications/spotlight/just-health-it|access-date=July 19, 2020|title=Just for the health of it!|publisher=Australian Government Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Communities|year=2013}}</ref>
| elevation=
| maxtemp = 37.5
| mintemp = 5.6
| rainfall = 188.8
| stategov = [[Electoral division of Namatjira|Namatjira]]
| fedgov = [[Division of Lingiari|Lingiari]]
| dist1 = 159
| dir1 = east
| location1 = [[Stuart Highway]]
}}
'''Aputula''' is a remote [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] community in the [[Northern Territory]] of [[Australia]]. It is south of [[Alice Springs, Northern Territory|Alice Springs]], near the border with [[South Australia]]. It is {{convert|159|km|mi|abbr=on}} east of the [[Stuart Highway]]. About 250 people live there. They are [[Pitjantjatjara]], [[Yankunytjatjara]], [[Luritja]], and Lower Southern [[Arrernte]] people. The [[Finke River]] passes nearby the town, but it is dry for most of the year, except during [[flood]]s.

The town was called '''Finke''' until the 1980s. It began as a trading stop on the [[Central Australian Railway]]. Local Aborigines traded [[dingo]] [[Scalping|scalps]], [[artefact]]s and [[tool]]s for European goods. In the 1950s and 1960s, [[White people|White]] farmers set up [[cattle]] [[Station (agriculture)|stations]] around the town. Most of the Europeans left Finke when the railway line was moved westwards in the late 1970s. This was done because the track was damaged during huge floods in 1973 and 1974, so it was moved away from the river. The Aboriginal people living in the town did not move, and the town came to be known as Aputula.<ref>Kelham, Megg (November 2012) [http://www.territorystories.nt.gov.au/handle/10070/230199 A Museum in Finke: An Aputula Heritage Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004060910/http://www.territorystories.nt.gov.au/handle/10070/230199 |date=2015-10-04 }} commissioned by the Aputula Social Club. Northern Territory Library.</ref> The name comes from a place called Putula near the town, which used to be the site of a water soak. Putula is an [[Arrernte language|Arrernte]] word. [[Arrernte people]] used to get their water there, before the white people and the railway line came to the area.

Aputula holds the record of having the hottest day ever recorded in the Northern Territory—{{convert|48.3|°C|°F|abbr=on}} on 1 and 2 January 1960.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/extreme/records/national.pdf|title=Rainfall and Temperature Records: National|publisher=[[Bureau of Meteorology (Australia)|Bureau of Meteorology]]|access-date=17 November 2009|format=[[PDF]]}}</ref>

==References==
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[[Category:Indigenous Australian communities]]
[[Category:Towns in the Northern Territory]]
[[Category:Pitjantjatjara]]