Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia (a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia). It shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and its other close neighbours are Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi). (Full article...)
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat). (Full article...)
The islands to the east of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, on annexation, were renamed the Bismarck Archipelago (formerly the New Britannia Archipelago) and the two largest islands renamed Neupommern ('New Pomerania', today's New Britain) and Neumecklenburg ('New Mecklenburg', now New Ireland). Due to their accessibility by water, however, these outlying islands were, and have remained, the most economically viable part of the territory. (Full article...)
Port Moresby (/ˈmɔːrzbi/; Tok Pisin: Pot Mosbi), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the south-western coast of the Papuan Peninsula of the island of New Guinea. The city emerged as a trade centre in the second half of the 19th century. During World War II, it was a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43 as a staging point and air base to cut off Australia from Southeast Asia and the Americas. Due to its population and outsized influence compared to other cities in Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby may be regarded as a primate city.
As of the 2011 census, Port Moresby had 364,145 inhabitants. An unofficial 2020 estimate gives the population as 383,000. The place where the city was founded has been inhabited by the Motu-Koitabu people for centuries. The first Briton to see it was Royal Navy Captain John Moresby in 1873. It was named in honour of his father, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Fairfax Moresby.
He served in a variety of positions. His base was not primarily in political parties but in East Sepik Province, the area that elected him. During his political career he was a member of the House of Assembly and after independence in 1975 the National parliament for the East Sepik Provincial – later open – seat. He was the first chief minister at the end of colonial rule. Thereafter he became the first Prime Minister after independence from 1975 to 1980. He returned to the office of Prime Minister from 1982 to 1985, and his longest stint in the position was from 2002 to 2011. He also served as Cabinet Minister: he was minister of foreign affairs from 1988 to 1992; from 1999 to 2001 he was subsequently minister of foreign affairs, minister of mining and Bougainville, minister of foreign affairs and Bougainville affairs. He was leader of the opposition from 1968 to 1972, from 1980 to 1982, and thereafter in that position from 1985 to 1988, from 1992 to 1993, and finally from 2001 to 2002. When the new position of political governor as head of the provincial administration and representative MP was created in 1995, Somare took up the job. He was governor of East Sepik from 1995 until 1999. After the last election that he contended, he again became Governor of East Sepik (2012–2016). He was a founding member of the Pangu Party which led PNG into independence in 1975. He resigned from the Pangu Party and became an independent in 1988. He rejoined the Pangu Party in 1994 but was sacked as a leader in the following year. He was then asked to join and lead the National Alliance Party. In 2017 he left politics and also the National Alliance Party.
While Somare was in March 2011 hospitalised in Singapore, a majority of parliamentarians declared the post of Prime Minister vacant. Peter O'Neill was the new prime minister. This was contested. On 12 December 2011, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ordered that Somare be reinstated as Prime Minister, ruling that O'Neill had not been lawfully appointed. This event triggered the 2011–12 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis. Following a decisive victory for O'Neill in the 2012 general election, Somare expressed support for him, thereby ending the crisis and forming a coalition government. However, this truce did not last. When Somare announced his departure from politics, he made a blistering attack on O'Neill. (Full article...)
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Title page of first edition
The Malay Archipelago is a book by the English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies, and the island of New Guinea. It was published in two volumes in 1869, delayed by Wallace's ill health and the work needed to describe the many specimens he brought home. The book went through ten editions in the nineteenth century; it has been reprinted many times since, and has been translated into at least twelve languages.
The book describes each island that he visited in turn, giving a detailed account of its physical and human geography, its volcanoes, and the variety of animals and plants that he found and collected. At the same time, he describes his experiences, the difficulties of travel, and the help he received from the different peoples that he met. The preface notes that he travelled over 14,000 miles and collected 125,660 natural history specimens, mostly of insects though also thousands of molluscs, birds, mammals and reptiles.
Soldiers of the Australian 39th Battalion in September 1942
Soldiers of the Australian 39th Battalion in September 1942
The Kokoda Track campaign or Kokoda Trail campaign was part of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign consisted of a series of battles fought between July and November 1942 in what was then the Australian Territory of Papua. It was primarily a land battle, between the Japanese South Seas Detachment under Major General Tomitarō Horii and Australian and Papuan land forces under command of New Guinea Force. The Japanese objective was to seize Port Moresby by an overland advance from the north coast, following the Kokoda Track over the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range, as part of a strategy to isolate Australia from the United States.
The Japanese advanced to within sight of Port Moresby but withdrew on 26 September. They had outrun their supply line and had been ordered to withdraw in consequence of reverses suffered at Guadalcanal. The Australian pursuit encountered strong opposition from well-prepared positions around Templeton's Crossing and Eora Village from 11 to 28 October. Following the unopposed recapture of Kokoda, a major battle was fought around Oivi and Gorari from 4 to 11 November, resulting in a victory for the Australians. By 16 November, two brigades of the Australian 7th Division had crossed the Kumusi River at Wairopi, and advanced on the Japanese beachheads in a joint Australian and United States operation. The Japanese forces at Buna–Gona held out until 22 January 1943. (Full article...)
Copper ore concentrator undergoing construction, c. 1971
The Panguna mine is a large copper mine located in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Panguna represents one of the largest copper reserves in Papua New Guinea and in the world, having an estimated reserve of one billion tonnes of ore copper and twelve million ounces of gold. The mine has been closed since 1989 and has ceased all production. (Full article...)
The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi).
The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville. The conflict was described by Bougainvillean PresidentJohn Momis as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II in 1945, with an estimated 15,000–20,000 Bougainvilleans dead, although lower estimates place the toll at around 1,000–2,000.
Hostilities concluded under the Bougainville Peace Agreement in 1998. The national (PNG) government agreed to the founding of the Autonomous Bougainville Government and to certain rights and authorities that the autonomous government would have over what became known as Bougainville Province, which includes outlying small islands in addition to Bougainville Island itself. (Full article...)
With a population of 398,478 according to the 2020 census, Jayapura is the most populous city in the entire island of New Guinea, surpassing Port Moresby, the national capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. During the 2010-2020 decade it was also the fastest-growing city in Indonesia, with the population increasing by 55.23% between 2010 and 2020. The official estimate as at mid 2023 was 414,862 (comprising 220,024 males and 194,838 females).
New Guinea crocodile at Bandung Zoo in West Java, Indonesia
The New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylusnovaeguineae) is a small species of crocodile found on the island of New Guinea north of the mountain ridge that runs along the centre of the island. The population found south of the mountain ridge, formerly considered a genetically distinct population, is now considered a distinct species, Hall's New Guinea crocodile (C. halli). In the past it included the Philippine crocodile, C. n. mindorensis, as a subspecies, but today they are regarded as separate species. The habitat of the New Guinea crocodile is mostly freshwater swamps and lakes. It is most active at night when it feeds on fish and a range of other small animals. A female crocodile lays a clutch of eggs in a nest composed of vegetation and she lies up nearby to guard the nest. There is some degree of parental care for newly hatched juveniles. This crocodile was over-hunted for its valuable skin in the mid 20th century, but conservation measures have since been put in place, it is reared in ranches and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as being of "Least Concern". (Full article...)
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Dendrobium discolor, commonly known as antler orchid or golden orchid, is a species of epiphytic or lithophyticorchid in the family Orchidaceae, and are native to northern Australia, New Guinea, and part of Indonesia. It has cylindrical pseudobulbs, each with between ten and thirty five leathery leaves, and flowering stems with up to forty mostly brownish or greenish flowers with wavy and twisted sepals and petals. (Full article...)
... that Australian official Jack Emanuel was awarded the George Cross in 1971 after being stabbed to death whilst trying to resolve a land dispute with the Tolai people of New Guinea?
... that artifacts of Papua New Guinean art were called "living spirits with fixed abodes"?
... that until Rufina Peter and Kessy Sawang's election in August 2022, Papua New Guinea was one of only three countries without a woman in parliament?
Image 21New Guinea from 1884 to 1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea, Germany the north-eastern part, and Britain the south-eastern part. (from New Guinea)
Image 23An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 24Papuans on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13 (from New Guinea)
A 1644 map of New Guinea and the surrounding area (from New Guinea)
Korowai tribesman (from New Guinea)
New Guinea crocodile (from New Guinea)
A Japanese military map of New Guinea from 1943 (from New Guinea)
Jayapura, the most populus and largest cities on the island of New Guinea (Papua) (from New Guinea)
Highlands of Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
Yali Mabel, Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
Western New Guinea was formally annexed by Indonesia in 1969. (from New Guinea)
Map showing the combined landmass of Sahul formed during Pleistocene glacations (from New Guinea)
Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s (from New Guinea)
Flag under German control of New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Hoisting the German flag at Mioko in 1884 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
The raggiana bird-of-paradise is native to New Guinea. (from New Guinea)
Papua New Guinea map of Köppen climate classification (from New Guinea)
Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line (from New Guinea)
Coral reefs in Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
New Guinea from 1884 to 1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea, Germany the north-eastern part, and Britain the south-eastern part. (from New Guinea)
Mount Bosavi (from New Guinea)
An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Papuans on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13 (from New Guinea)
Since 2002, display of the flag of West Papua is allowed in West Papua only if accompanied by, and not raised higher than, the flag of Indonesia. (from History of Western New Guinea)
Koiari village near Bootless Inlet, British New Guinea (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Group of natives at Mairy Pass. Mainland of British New Guinea in 1885. (from New Guinea)
Dutch expeditions in Netherlands New Guinea 1907–1915. (from History of Western New Guinea)
Political divisions of New Guinea (2006) (from New Guinea)
New Guinea located in relation to Melanesia (from New Guinea)
The floristic region of Malesia (from New Guinea)
Regions of Oceania: Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Australasia include the Australian landmass (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Topographical map of New Guinea (from New Guinea)
British flag raised in Queensland 1883 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
New Guinea Volunteer Rifles with captured Japanese flag, 1942 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Australian troops at Milne Bay, Papua.The Australian garrison was the first to inflict defeat on the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II at the Battle of Milne Bay of Aug–Sep 1942. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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