Portal:New Guinea

The New Guinea Portal

Introduction

New Guinea
Native name:
Papua, Niugini, Niu Gini
Geography
LocationOceania (Melanesia)
ArchipelagoMelanesia and Malay Archipelago
Area785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi)
Area rank2nd

New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Niugini; Hiri Motu: Niu Gini; Indonesian: Papua, fossilized Nugini, or historically Irian) is the world's second-largest island, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre (81-nautical-mile; 93-mile) wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the African region of Guinea. (Full article...)

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). Officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; Hiri Motu: Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), it shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and it is directly adjacent to Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located along its southeastern 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 granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat). (Full article...)

Selected article -


  • Great flying fox in flight

    The great flying fox (Pteropus neohibernicus), also known as the greater flying fox or Bismarck flying fox, is a species of megabat in the genus Pteropus, found throughout lowland areas of New Guinea and in the Bismarck Archipelago. Conflicting evidence suggests that its closest relative is either the spectacled flying fox or, jointly, the Pelew and insular flying foxes. Two subspecies are recognized. At up to 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) in weight, it is among the heaviest bats in the world and the largest bat in Melanesia. It is a gregarious animal which roosts with hundreds or thousands of individuals. In part due to its wide variation in color, it has many taxonomic synonyms, including Pteropus degener, Pteropus papuanus, and Pteropus sepikensis. It may forage during the day or night in search of fruit, including figs or fruits from the family Sapotaceae. It is considered a least-concern species by the IUCN, though its numbers have been negatively impacted by what appeared to be a disease, as well as by hunting for bushmeat that occurs across its range. (Full article...)

  • Dendrobium discolor, commonly known as antler orchid or golden orchid, is a species of epiphytic or lithophytic orchid 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...)

  • New Britain from space, June 2005. Clearly visible are ash plumes from Langila and Ulawun volcanoes

    New Britain (Tok Pisin: Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits) and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel. The main towns of New Britain are Rabaul/Kokopo and Kimbe. The island is roughly the size of Taiwan. When the island was part of German New Guinea, its name was Neupommern ("New Pomerania").
    In common with most of the Bismarcks it was largely formed by volcanic processes, and has active volcanoes including Ulawun (highest volcano nationally), Langila, the Garbuna Group, the Sulu Range, and the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan of the Rabaul caldera. A major eruption of Tavurvur in 1994 destroyed the East New Britain provincial capital of Rabaul. Most of the town still lies under metres of ash, and the capital has been moved to nearby Kokopo. (Full article...)
  • Sir William Jack Skate KCMG (26 September 1953 – 3 January 2006) was a prominent Papua New Guinea politician. He was the son of an Australian father and a Papua New Guinean mother. Though his career was turbulent and often marked by setbacks, he served in the highest posts in his country: prime minister of Papua New Guinea, speaker of the National Parliament, and as acting governor-general of Papua New Guinea. (Full article...)

  • The Ok Tedi Mine is an open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea located near the headwaters of the Ok Tedi River, in the Star Mountains Rural LLG of the North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

    The mine is operated by Ok Tedi Mining (OTM), which is majority-owned by the PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (PNGSDPL). In 2013 it was nationalised by the Government of Papua New Guinea in controversial action. Prior to 2002, it was majority owned by BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world since a merger in 2001.

    Located in a remote area of PNG, above 2,000 m (6,600 ft) on Mount Fubilan, in a region of high rainfall and frequent earthquakes, mine development posed serious challenges. The town of Tabubil was built to serve the mining operation. (Full article...)

  • The fauna of New Guinea comprises a large number of species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and amphibians.

    As the world's largest and highest tropical island, New Guinea occupies less than 0.5% of world's land surface, yet supports a high percentage of global biodiversity. Approximately 4,624 vertebrate species inhabit the island of New Guinea and its surrounding waters, which constitutes about 8% of the recognized world vertebrates. This ranges from an estimated 4% of the world's lizards and mammals, to about 10% of the world's fish species.

    The numbers of global and New Guinea invertebrate species are poorly known, and thus an accurate comparison is difficult. Butterflies are the best known invertebrate group, and are represented in New Guinea by about 735 species, which is about 4.2% of the world total of 17,500 species. (Full article...)

  • Corruption is rife in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
    According to The Economist, "PNG's governments are notorious for corruption, and ever run the risk of turning the state into a fully-fledged kleptocracy".

    Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index scores 180 countries according to the perceived corruption of their public sector on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). Those countries are then ranked by their score; the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. In the 2023 Index, Papua New Guinea scored 29 and ranked 133rd. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180). For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among the countries of the Asia Pacific region was 85, the average score was 45 and the lowest score was 17.

    Papua New Guinea is below the satisfactory levels set by the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), according to a report submitted by Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) in 2011. TIPNG’s report found that in many cases, anti-corruption bodies in PNG were restricted by shortcomings in financial resources. (Full article...)
  • Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has been inhabited by humans for at least 29,000 years, according to artefacts found in Kilu Cave on Buka Island. The region is named after Bougainville Island, the largest island of the Solomon Islands archipelago, but also contains a number of smaller islands.

    The first arrivals in Bougainville were ethnically Australo-Melanesian, related to Papuans and Aboriginal Australians. Around 3,000 years ago, Austronesians associated with the Lapita culture also settled on the islands, bringing agriculture and pottery. Present-day Bougainvilleans are descended from a mixture of the two populations, and both Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages are spoken to this day.

    In 1616, Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire became the first Europeans to sight the islands. The main island was named after French admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who reached it in 1768. The German Empire placed Bougainville under a protectorate in 1886, while the remainder of the Solomon Islands became part of the British Empire in 1893. The present-day boundaries between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands were established by the Tripartite Convention of 1899. The incorporation of Bougainville into German New Guinea initially had little economic impact, although the associated Catholic missions succeeded in converting a majority of the islanders to Christianity. (Full article...)

  • Dendrobium trilamellatum, commonly known as the fragrant tea tree orchid or large tea tree orchid, is a species of epiphytic orchid found in northern Australia and New Guinea. It has spindle-shaped pseudobulbs, between three and seven leathery, dark green leaves and between three and fifteen yellow, yellowish brown or brown flowers with a mauve to purple labellum. (Full article...)

  • The New Guinea singing dog or New Guinea Highland dog is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in the New Guinea Highlands, on the island of New Guinea. Once considered to be a separate species in its own right, under the name Canis hallstromi, it is closely related to the Australian dingo. The dog is relatively unusual among canines; it is one of the few to be considered "barkless", and is known for the unusual "yodel"-like style of vocalizing that gives it its name.

    In 1989, the Australian mammalogist Tim Flannery took a photo of a black-and-tan dog in Telefomin District. He noted that these dogs lived with local tribal peoples in the mountains, and that feral populations lived in the alpine and sub-alpine grasslands of the Star Mountains and the Wharton Range. The photo was published in his book, Mammals of New Guinea. In 2012, Australian wilderness-adventure guide Tom Hewett took a photo of a tawny, thick-coated dog in the Puncak Mandala region of West Papua, Indonesia. In 2016, a literature review found no definitive evidence that the earliest possible dogs, within captive populations of New Guinea singing dogs, were wild animals; successive generations of puppies were raised as members of village populations, thus being domestic dogs.

    In 2020, a genetic study found that the New Guinea Highland wild dogs were genetically basal to the dingo and the New Guinea singing dog, and therefore the potential originator of both. (Full article...)
  • The Free Papua Movement or Free Papua Organization (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM) is an independence movement based on Western New Guinea, seeking liberation of the territory from colonial Indonesian administration. The territory is currently divided into six Indonesian provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua, also formerly known as Papua, Irian Jaya and West Irian.

    The movement consists of three elements: a disparate group of armed units each with limited territorial control with no single commander; several groups in the territory that conduct demonstrations and protests; and a small group of leaders based abroad that raise awareness of issues in the territory whilst striving for international support for independence.

    Since its inception, the OPM has attempted diplomatic dialogue, conducted Morning Star flag-raising ceremonies, and undertaken militant actions as part of the Papua conflict. Supporters routinely display the Morning Star flag and other symbols of Papuan unity, such as the national anthem "Hai Tanahku Papua" and a national coat of arms, which had been adopted in the period 1961 until Indonesian administration began in May 1963 under the New York Agreement. Beginning in 2021, the movement is considered as a separatist terrorist organisation (Indonesian: Kelompok Teroris dan Separatis) in Indonesia, and its activities have incurred charges of treason and terrorism. On 10 April 2024, however, the designation was reverted back to OPM by the Indonesian Armed Forces. (Full article...)

  • Title page of first edition

    The Malay Archipelago is a book by the British 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.

    The work was illustrated with engravings, based on Wallace's observations and collection, by the leading illustrators Thomas Baines, Walter Hood Fitch, John Gerrard Keulemans, E. W. Robinson, Joseph Wolf and T. W. Wood. (Full article...)

  • An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942.

    New Guinea Force was a military command unit for Australian, United States and native troops from the Territories of Papua and New Guinea serving in the New Guinea campaign during World War II. Formed in April 1942, when the Australian First Army was formed from the Australian I Corps after it returned from the Middle East, it was responsible for planning and directing all operations within the territory up until October 1944. General Headquarters Southwest Pacific Area Operational Instruction No.7 of 25 May 1942, issued by Commander-Allied-Forces, General Douglas MacArthur, placed all Australian and US Army, Air Force and Navy Forces in the Port Moresby Area under the control of New Guinea Force. Over the course of its existence, New Guinea Force was commanded by some of the Australian Army's most notable commanders, including Sydney Rowell, Sir Edmund Herring and Sir Leslie Morshead.

    General Sir Thomas Blamey also commanded the force in 1942 while based in Port Moresby. (Full article...)

  • Puncak Trikora from north.
    Main summit (center left) and west ridge (right)

    Puncak Trikora is a 4,730 or 4,750-metre-high (15,584 ft) mountain in the Highland Papua province of Indonesia on New Guinea. It lies in the eastern part of the Sudirman (Nassau) Range of the Maoke Mountains.

    Behind Puncak Jaya (Carstensz Pyramid) at 4,884 m (16,024 ft), it is either the second or third highest mountain on the island of New Guinea and the Australasian continent. As such it appears on some Seven Second Summits lists, although SRTM-data support that Puncak Mandala (Juliana Peak) in the Jayawijaya (Orange) Range is higher with 4,760 m (15,617 ft). (Full article...)

  • Looking out across the lower half of the Porgera processing plant, and down into the Porgera valley

    The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation in near Porgera, Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), located at the head of the Porgera Valley. The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.

    The Porgera Gold Mine closed in April 2020, following the end of its special mining lease. Extensive negotiations for a new special mining lease were concluded in 2023 and the reopening of the mine was announced in December 2023, with first production expected in the first quarter of 2024.

    The new special mining lease was finally issued to New Porgera Limited, an entity 51% owned by PNG stakeholders (including state-owned Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited, local landowners and the Enga provincial government), and 49% by Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL), itself a joint venture between Barrick Gold and Zijin Mining of China. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... 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?
  • ... that David Dexter, who wrote the New Guinea volume in the series Australia in the War of 1939–1945, was a commando who served in East Timor and New Guinea?
  • ... that Dorkas Tokoro-Hanasbey, the only female member of the New Guinea Council, arrived thirty minutes late to her inauguration ceremony?
  • ... that Australiformis semoni is a parasite that infests marsupials in Australia and New Guinea and whose infestation could cause debilitating ulcerative granulomatous gastritis?
  • ... that the designer of the flag of Papua New Guinea, Susan Karike, had a gallery at the national museum named after her?
  • ... that the clinical trials of British scientist Peter Pharoah helped eradicate congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (cretinism) in Papua New Guinea?

General images -

The following are images from various New Guinea-related articles on Wikipedia.
  • Map showing the combined landmass of Sahul formed during Pleistocene glacations (from New Guinea)
  • Highlands of Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
  • Western New Guinea was formally annexed by Indonesia in 1969. (from New Guinea)
  • Flag under German control of New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  • Mount Bosavi (from New Guinea)
  • Hoisting the German flag at Mioko in 1884 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  • Yali Mabel, Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
  • Papuans on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13 (from New Guinea)
  • New Guinea map of Köppen climate classification (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)
  • The raggiana bird-of-paradise is native to New Guinea. (from New Guinea)
  • Yali tribesman in the Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
  • A 1644 map of New Guinea and the surrounding area (from New Guinea)
  • Korowai tribesman (from New Guinea)
  • New Guinea located in relation to Melanesia (from New Guinea)
  • A typical map from the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Australasia during the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (ca. 1590s–1720s): including Nova Guinea (New Guinea), Nova Hollandia (mainland Australia), Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and Nova Zeelandia (New Zealand). (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  • Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s (from New Guinea)
  • New Guinea Volunteer Rifles with captured Japanese flag, 1942 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  • The Morning Star, flag of West Papua, was designed by the New Guinea Council in 1961. Its display is prohibited in some circumstances in Indonesia. (from History of Western New Guinea)
  • Papuan lake dwellings with a lakatoi under sail, 1898 or before (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  • The floristic region of Malesia (from New Guinea)
  • Political divisions of New Guinea (from New Guinea)
  • Koiari village near Bootless Inlet, British New Guinea (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)
  • A Japanese military map of New Guinea from 1943 (from New Guinea)
  • Regions of Oceania: Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Physiographically, Australasia includes the Australian landmass (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and New Guinea (from New Guinea)
  • British flag raised in Queensland 1883 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
  •   Papua province
      Highland Papua province
      Central Papua province
      South Papua province
      West Papua province, which was divided in December 2022
    (from New Guinea)
  • The continent of Sahul before the rising ocean sundered Australia and New Guinea after the last ice age (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)
  • Group of natives at Mairy Pass. Mainland of British New Guinea in 1885. (from New Guinea)
  • Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line (from New Guinea)
  • Topographical map of New Guinea (from New Guinea)
  • Coral reefs in Papua New Guinea (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)
  • Dutch expeditions in Netherlands New Guinea 1907–1915. (from History of Western New Guinea)
  • New Guinea crocodile (from New Guinea)

In the news

15 April 2024 –
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. No damage or casualties are reported. (ABC News)
24 March 2024 – 2024 East Sepik earthquake
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake has hit a remote part of western Papua New Guinea, killing five people and causing extensive damage to around 1,000 homes. (VOA)

WikiProjects

  • WikiProject Papua New Guinea
  • WikiProject Indonesia
  • WikiProject Melanesia

General topics

Categories

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New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Western New Guinea
Culture of New Guinea
Demographics of New Guinea
Environment of New Guinea
Four-thousanders of New Guinea
Geography of New Guinea
History of New Guinea
Languages of New Guinea
New Guinean people
Works about New Guinea

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