Portal:New Guinea

New Guinea
Native name: Papua, Niugini, Niu Gini
Geography
Location	Oceania (Melanesia)
Archipelago	Melanesia and Malay Archipelago
Area	785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi)
Area rank	2nd

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The New Guinea Portal

Introduction

A view at Piaynemo, one of the islands of the Raja Ampat Islands

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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, 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...)

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Image 1
PNG Football Stadium, known by the sponsored name of Santos National Football Stadium and previously as Lloyd Robson Oval until 2015, is a sporting ground in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It hosted three games for the 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup. It has been the home ground for the Papua New Guinea national rugby league team since 1975. It has a total capacity of approximately 15,000 and is the National Stadium of Papua New Guinea. The stadium was completely redeveloped in preparation for the 2015 Pacific Games. (Full article...)
Image 2
The COVID-19 pandemic in Papua New Guinea is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have reached Papua New Guinea on 20 March 2020. On 4 May 2020, Papua New Guinea was declared COVID-19 free. However, on 20 June, the government confirmed another case of COVID-19, meaning that the disease was present again within the country.

Until early 2021, the country managed to stave off a major COVID-19 outbreak, with only 1,275 cases reported at the end of February according to Johns Hopkins University. In March cases tripled, with Prime Minister James Marape speaking of "rampant community transmission". By early May, the number of hospitalizations in the capital Port Moresby stabilized, but delays in receiving test results from regional areas were a concern.
In mid May, as the reasons for the apparent easing of the pandemic situation remained uncertain, discrepancies between government figures and higher ones from the provinces led to concerns that hundreds of COVID-19 cases had been missed in the national tally.

As of March 2022 Papua New Guinea has a total of 41,533 cumulative cases and 639 deaths. As of March 2022^[update], the country had a vaccination rate of 3.5%, one of the lowest in the world. (Full article...)
Image 3

Marape in 2023

James Marape (born 24 April 1971) is a Papua New Guinean politician who has served as the prime minister of Papua New Guinea since May 2019. He has been a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since July 2007, representing the electorate of Tari-Pori Open in Hela Province in the New Guinea Highlands. He has held Cabinet Posts as Minister of Education (2008–2011), Minister of Finance (2012–2019), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2023–2024). Marape entered the 2022 elections under the banner of the Pangu Party and won the most seats, while still being far from a majority. He was therefore able to form government, which was elected unopposed by the new parliament. (Full article...)
Image 4

Chinese people in Papua New Guinea included, as of 2008^[update], only about 1,000 of the "old Chinese"—locally born descendants of late 19th- and early 20th-century immigrants—remain in the country; most have moved to Australia. However, their numbers have been bolstered significantly by new arrivals from overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and later from mainland China. There are also a few migrants from the Republic of China (Taiwan). (Full article...)
Image 5
The Lae War Cemetery, established in 1944, is located adjacent to the Botanical Gardens in the centre of the city of Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, in Papua New Guinea. The cemetery is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

In World War II, Japanese and Commonwealth soldiers fought to hold the strategic areas of Papua New Guinea, and the Morobe Province was the site of several heated campaigns in late 1942–1943; by 1944, the Japanese had been driven off the island. The cemetery holds the remains of over 2,800 soldiers, many of whom died in the Salamaua–Lae campaign, but also those who died in Japanese detention on the Island. As the remains of missing soldiers are recovered, they are interred in the cemetery. (Full article...)
Image 6
Sir William Jack Skate (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...)
Image 7
Map of Melanesia, showing its location within Oceania

Melanesia (UK: /ˌmɛləˈniːziə/, US: /ˌmɛləˈniːʒə/) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.

The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Maluku islands. It also includes the Indonesian part of New Guinea, the French oversea collectivity of New Caledonia, and the Torres Strait Islands. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere.

The name Melanesia (in French, Mélanésie) was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville: he coined the terms Melanesia and Micronesia to go alongside the pre-existing Polynesia to designate what he viewed as the three main ethnic and geographical regions forming the Pacific. (Full article...)
Image 8
Highlands Highway in Eastern Highlands Province

The Highlands Highway, sometimes known as the Okuk Highway, is the main land highway in Papua New Guinea. It connects several major cities and is vital for the movement of people and goods between the populous Highlands region and the coast.

For most of its length the Highlands Highway is no more than a single carriageway two-lane road that is often hindered by potholes and land slips. It is also notorious, particularly in the Highlands region, for being the place of numerous armed hold-ups and robberies committed by local bandits called raskols. (Full article...)
Image 9

O'Neill in 2015

Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. He has been a Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pangia since 2002. He was a former cabinet minister and the leader of the People's National Congress between 2006 and 2022. He resigned his position as prime minister to avoid a vote of no confidence, and he was succeeded by James Marape. (Full article...)
Image 10
Greater bird-of-paradise

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...)
Image 11
The politics of Papua New Guinea takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic multi-party system, whereby the prime minister is the head of government. Papua New Guinea is an independent Commonwealth realm, with the monarch serving as head of state and a governor-general, nominated by the National Parliament, serving as their representative. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament.

Constitutional safeguards include freedom of speech, press, worship, movement, and association. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. (Full article...)
Image 12
Seth Jafeth Rumkorem (1933 – 2010) was a West Papuan military officer and independence activist. He chose to defect from the Indonesian Army to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) after witnessing electoral fraud and human rights abuses conducted by the former. He quickly became the leader of the movement's armed wing and was among the signatories of the proclamation of the Republic of West Papua.
He went into exile to Greece, after an attempt to secure weapons for OPM went wrong. He eventually relocated to the Netherlands, where he continued his activism until his death in 2010. (Full article...)
Image 13

Eastern brown snake, NSW, Australia

The eastern brown snake (Pseudonaja textilis), often referred to as the common brown snake, is a species of extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is native to eastern and central Australia and southern New Guinea. It was first described by André Marie Constant Duméril, Gabriel Bibron, and Auguste Duméril in 1854. The adult eastern brown snake has a slender build and can grow to 2 m (7 ft) in length. The colour of its surface ranges from pale brown to black, while its underside is pale cream-yellow, often with orange or grey splotches. The eastern brown snake is found in most habitats except dense forests, often in farmland and on the outskirts of urban areas, as such places are populated by its main prey, the house mouse. The species is oviparous. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the snake as a least-concern species, though its status in New Guinea is unclear.

It is considered the world's second-most venomous land snake after the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus), based on its LD₅₀ value (subcutaneous) in mice. The main effects of its venom are on the circulatory system—coagulopathy, haemorrhage (bleeding), cardiovascular collapse, and cardiac arrest. One of the main components of the venom is the prothrombinase complex pseutarin-C, which breaks down prothrombin. (Full article...)
Image 14

The Papua conflict (Indonesian: Konflik Papua) is an ongoing conflict in Western New Guinea (Papua) between Indonesia and the Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM). Subsequent to the withdrawal of the Dutch administration from the Netherlands New Guinea in 1962 and implementation of Indonesian administration in 1963, the Free Papua Movement has conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war against Indonesia by targeting its military and police, along with ordinary Indonesian citizens.

Papuan separatists have conducted protests and ceremonies, raising their flag for independence or calling for federation with Papua New Guinea, and accuse the Indonesian government of indiscriminate violence and of suppressing their freedom of expression. Indonesia has also been accused of conducting a genocidal campaign against the indigenous inhabitants. In a 2007 book, author De R. G. Crocombe wrote that an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Papuans had been killed by Indonesian security forces, and many women raped or subjected to other sexual violence. Research on violence toward Papuan women by the Papuan Women's Working Group, together with the Asia Justice Rights (AJAR), found that 64 out of 170 (or 4 out of 10) Papuan women surveyed in 2013, 2017 experienced some form of state violence. A more recent study in 2019 found that 65 out of 249 Papuan women shared such experiences. The UN has called for "urgent and unrestricted humanitarian aid to the region" in 2022, speaking of "shocking abuses" against local populations listing "child killings, disappearances, torture and mass population displacement."

Indonesian governance in the region has been compared to that of a police state, involving the suppression of free political association and expression, although others have noted conflicts in Papua are instead caused by the near or total absence of state involvement in some areas. (Full article...)
Image 15

The Salamaua platoon of the NGVR on parade in April 1940.

The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (NGVR) was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. It was initially raised as a unit of the Militia from white Australian and European expatriates in New Guinea upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, before being activated for full-time service following the Japanese landings in early 1942. NGVR personnel then helped rescue survivors of Lark Force from Rabaul in February and March 1942. Between March and May, the NGVR monitored the Japanese bases which had been established in the Huon Gulf region, being the only Allied force in the area until the arrival of Kanga Force at Wau in May. The battalion subsequently established observation posts overlooking the main approaches and reported on Japanese movements.

Later, it inflicted significant casualties on the Japanese in a series of raids, and led them to believe that they faced a much larger opposing force. On 29 June, the NGVR and the newly arrived 2/5th Independent Company carried out a highly successful attack on the Japanese garrison in Salamaua, killing at least 113 men. When the focus shifted to the Milne Bay and Kokoda Track battles of August and September, the NGVR continued to man its posts overlooking the Japanese base areas. The Japanese were subsequently defeated in the Battle of Wau in January and February 1943, relieving the pressure on the NGVR. The battalion was disbanded in April 1943 due to attrition.

In the years immediately following the war the Australian Army considered re-establishing a military presence in Papua New Guinea (PNG), although there was some opposition among white settlers to the raising of native units. As an interim measure, the re-establishment of the NGVR was approved in July 1949. The unit reformed as the Papua New Guinea Volunteer Rifles (PNGVR) on 16 March 1951, initially as a whites-only reserve unit of the Citizen Military Forces (CMF). In March 1951 a PNGVR detachment assisted in relief operations following the eruption of Mount Lamington, which killed 3,466 people and left more than 5,000 homeless. Between 1951 and 1953 PNGVR elements were established in all the main centres of Papua New Guinea. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... 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 the clinical trials of British scientist Peter Pharoah helped eradicate congenital iodine deficiency syndrome (cretinism) in Papua New Guinea?
... 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 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 Australiformis semoni is a parasite that infests marsupials in Australia and New Guinea and whose infestation could cause debilitating ulcerative granulomatous gastritis?
... that Dorkas Tokoro-Hanasbey, the only female member of the New Guinea Council, arrived thirty minutes late to her inauguration ceremony?

General images - show new batch

The following are images from various New Guinea-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1
  Southwest Papua province
  West Papua province
  Papua province
  Central Papua province
  Highland Papua province
  South Papua province
(from New Guinea)
Image 2Topographical map of New Guinea (from New Guinea)
Image 3Papuans on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13 (from New Guinea)
Image 4The continent of Sahul before the rising ocean sundered Australia and New Guinea after the last ice age (from New Guinea)
Image 5Highlands of Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
Image 6Since 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)
Image 7Mount Bosavi (from New Guinea)
Image 8Western New Guinea was formally annexed by Indonesia in 1969. (from New Guinea)
Image 9A 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)
Image 10British flag raised in Queensland 1883 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 11Papuan lake dwellings with a lakatoi under sail, 1898 or before (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 12An 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 13Group of natives at Mairy Pass. Mainland of British New Guinea in 1885. (from New Guinea)
Image 14Flag under German control of New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 15Regions 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)
Image 16Papua New Guinea map of Köppen climate classification (from New Guinea)
Image 17Hoisting the German flag at Mioko in 1884 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 18Australian 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)
Image 19New Guinea crocodile (from New Guinea)
Image 20Map showing the combined landmass of Sahul formed during Pleistocene glacations (from New Guinea)
Image 21New Guinea located in relation to Melanesia (from New Guinea)
Image 22A 1644 map of New Guinea and the surrounding area (from New Guinea)
Image 23Coral reefs in Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
Image 24Political divisions of New Guinea (2006) (from New Guinea)
Image 25New 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 26Dutch expeditions in Netherlands New Guinea 1907–1915. (from History of Western New Guinea)
Image 27A Japanese military map of New Guinea from 1943 (from New Guinea)
Image 28New Guinea Volunteer Rifles with captured Japanese flag, 1942 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 29Regions of Oceania: Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Physiographically, Australasia includes the Australian landmass (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and New Guinea (from New Guinea)
Image 30Jayapura, the most populus and largest cities on the island of New Guinea (Papua) (from New Guinea)
Image 31The raggiana bird-of-paradise is native to New Guinea. (from New Guinea)
Image 32Yali Mabel, Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
Image 33Yali tribesman in the Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
Image 34Koiari village near Bootless Inlet, British New Guinea (from History of Papua New Guinea)
Image 35Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line (from New Guinea)
Image 36Korowai tribesman (from New Guinea)
Image 37Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s (from New Guinea)
Image 38The floristic region of Malesia (from New Guinea)