Kawai Islands

Kawai Islands
Landsat image of the group
Waters	Pacific Ocean
archipelago	Torres Strait Islands
Geographical location	9 ° 11 ′  S , 142 ° 0 ′  E Coordinates: 9 ° 11 ′  S , 142 ° 0 ′  E
Number of islands	3
Main island	Kawa Island
Total land area	20.66 km²
Residents	uninhabited
Location of the Torres Strait Islands

The Kawai Islands are a group of islands in Papua New Guinea . They belong to the northernmost Torres Strait Islands and are only a few hundred meters off the south coast of New Guinea at the mouth of the Wassi Kussa River . The islands are flat, overgrown with mangroves and uninhabited. Of the original four islands that are still shown on a map from 1942, only three can now be made out on the satellite image. Adabadana Kawa Island can no longer be found. This island is already missing on a detailed map from 1948.

These are the following islands:

Island name	location	Area km²	Geographic coordinates
Kawa Island	west	9.69	09 ° 11 ′  S , 142 ° 00 ′  E
Karobailo Kawa Island	north	1.61	09 ° 11 ′  S , 142 ° 01 ′  E
( Adabadana Kawa Island )	south	-	09 ° 12 ′  S , 142 ° 01 ′  E
Mata Kawa Island	east	9.36	09 ° 11 ′  S , 142 ° 03 ′  E

The Kawai Islands belong geographically to the Talbot Islands located about 10 km to the east , even if they were transferred from Australia to Papua New Guinea in the Torres Strait Treaty of 1978 .

Kawa (plural Kawal ) means "island" in the Kala Kaiwau Ya language ( language of the northwestern Torres Islands ). The name component also occurs in other island names of the immediately neighboring Australian island region of the Top Western Islands , such as Warul Kawa ( Deliverance Island ) and Moegina Kawa.

See also

• List of Torres Strait Islands

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ [2]
3. ↑ http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/1985/4.html

Web links

• The 1978 Torres Strait Treaty (with explanations)
• (  Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap )