Lae
Lae | ||
Panorama of the city |
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State : | Papua New Guinea | |
Province : | Morobe | |
Coordinates : | 6 ° 44 ′ S , 146 ° 59 ′ E | |
Height : | 8 m | |
Residents : | 148,934 (2011) | |
Time zone : | AEST (UTC + 10) | |
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Lae (German formerly Lehe ) is the second largest city in Papua New Guinea and the capital of the Morobe province on the north coast of the country. It has 148,934 inhabitants (as of 2011) and is located on the Huongolf , which is rich in coral reefs . Half an hour's drive outside the city is Laes Nadzab Airport , which is served by several international airlines .
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history
Lae was only founded in the 1920s when a suitable location for a runway was sought in the newly discovered gold area of Wau and it was found at the German Lehe mission station at Huongolf. The city was renamed Lae. In 1935, Lae was only one of the smaller centers of Papua New Guinea with over 100 mostly male Europeans. Most of the residents at that time were employees of various airlines, u. a. of Guinea Airways , through which the supply of the gold fields was regulated.
On July 2, 1937, the American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart made her last stopover in Lae before she got lost on the onward flight.
After the destruction caused by heavy fighting in the Pacific War during the Second World War , the city was redesigned around the old, now no longer used airport with widely scattered factory and office buildings . In addition to the important industrial center, there are spacious parks , gardens , hotel clubs and golf courses . The botanical garden , which covers about 100 hectares and presents the entire rich flora of New Guinea, is famous .
In 1968 Lae became the seat of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Higher Technical Education , a forerunner of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, founded here in 1973 .
population
The descendants of the Lae residents at the time of the arrival of the first Europeans now live in the five settlements of Butibam and Ahi-Hengali on the east bank of the Bumbu River and closest to the city. To the north of Lae is the village of Kamkumun and to the east of Wagan and Yanga.
The original inhabitants of Laes probably come from the Kawa-speaking Bukawa (Bukaua) area further east . Later Ahis displaced from their homeland joined them.
Today, numerous internal migrants live in Lae and the outskirts, mostly in squatter settlements . The settlement takes place partly with, partly without the consent of the owners. A large part of the city's workforce lives in such settlements, which are only partially provided with public infrastructure. There is only a marginal road, electricity and health network within the settlements. However, the conditions here are very different from settlement to settlement. See also: Urbanization in Developing Countries .
economy
Due to the poor transport links from Port Moresby on the one hand and the good transport links from Lae on the other, Lae has overtaken Port Moresby in some economic and industrial sectors.
Town twinning
Cairns , Australia ( Queensland ) since 1984 |
Sons of the city
- Paul Grabowsky (* 1958), jazz musician
- Raymond Gunemba (* 1986), football player
- Alwin Komolong (* 1995), soccer player