Everything about New Ireland Island totally explained
New Ireland (
Tok Pisin:
Niu Ailan) is a large
island in
Papua New Guinea, approximately 8,650 km² in area. It is the main and largest island of the
New Ireland Province. It lies northeast of the island of
New Britain. Both islands are a part of the
Bismarck Archipelago and are separated by the
Saint George's Channel. The administrative centre of the island and the province is
Kavieng located at the northern end of the island.
Geography
The island is part of the
Bismarck Archipelago and is often described as having the shape of a
musket. The
tropical island of New Ireland is long, narrow and mountainous covered by several mountain ranges and dense
rainforest. For much of its 320 km length, it's less than 10 km across, yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is
Mount Lambel (2,150 metres or 7,054 feet). The island lies between one and five degrees south of the
equator.
New Ireland is surrounded by the
Bismarck Sea in the southwest and by the
Pacific Ocean in the northeast.
History
The first inhabitants of the Bismarck Archipelago arrived around 33,000 years ago after sailing from what is now
Papua New Guinea. Later arrivals included the
Lapita people.
In
1616 the Dutch sailors
Jacob Le Maire and
Willem Schouten were the first Europeans to set foot on the island.
In the 1870s and 1880s,
Marquis de Rays, a French nobleman attempted to establish a French colony on the island called New France. He sent four ill-fated expeditions to the island, the
most famous of which caused the death of 123 settlers.
From
1885 to
1914 New Ireland was a part of
German New Guinea and bore the name
Neumecklenburg. Germans managed several highly profitable
copra plantations and built a road to transport the goods. This road is currently in service and is named the
Boluminski Highway after the German administrator of German New Guinea,
Franz Boluminski. After
World War I New Ireland was ceded to Australia. In
World War II, it was captured by the
Japanese forces and was under their control.
Culture
- Malagan - funerary arts that originate in New Ireland and elsewhere in Oceania
- Tatanua - "The person who organizes a tatanua performance must select the music and dancers, assemble a male chorus, and acquire the masks. The masks are usually rented from one of the sculptors who makes them."
Further Information
Get more info on 'New Ireland Island'.
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