Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay
geography
Country:	Papua New Guinea
Waters:	Pacific Ocean
Islands:	100 of them D'Entrecasteaux Islands , Trobriand Islands , Woodlark Islands and the Louisiade Archipelago
Geographical location:	10 ° 10 ′  S , 150 ° 8 ′  E Coordinates: 10 ° 10 ′  S , 150 ° 8 ′  E
Basic data
Surface:	14,000 km²
Residents:	210,000
Population density:	15 inhabitants / km²
Capital:	Alotau
Situation map

The Milne Bay Province ( Tok Pisin : Milen Be ) is one of the 21 provinces of Papua New Guinea . It is around 14,000 km² and has around 210,000 inhabitants. The capital is Alotau with almost 10,000 inhabitants in 2000.

Milne Bay is not a purely island province; almost half of the province is on the mainland and forms the extreme southeastern tip of the island of New Guinea . Only in the far west of the province, which is not well developed in terms of infrastructure, are there higher elevations with the foothills of the Owen Stanley Mountains . The rest of the mainland consists of many peninsulas and bays, of which Milne Bay is just one.

history

John Moresby (after whom the place Port Moresby was named) originally named only the southeastern tip of the island of Cape Milne when he sailed around it in 1873, after Sir Alexander Milne , the senior British naval chief at the time , First Baronet of Inveresk (1806-1896). He named the bay behind it Discovery Bay , but it was eventually renamed Milne Bay , English Milne Bay .

In the period from August 26, 1942 to September 6, 1942, the landing forces of the Japanese Empire were repulsed in Milne Bay by Australian units as part of the Battle of New Guinea in the Battle of Milne Bay . This was the first step on the way to the reconquest of large parts of New Guinea by the Allies, which lasted until September 1945.

Districts and LLGs

Milne Bay Province is divided into four districts. Each district consists of one or more "areas at the local administrative level", Local Level Government (LLG) Areas , which are divided into Rural (rural) or Urban (urban) LLGs.

District	Administrative center	Designation of the LLG areas
Alotau district	Alotau	Alotau Urban
		Daga Rural
		Huhu Rural
		Makamaka Rural
		Maramatana Rural
		Suau Rural
		Weraura Rural
Esa'ala district	Esa'ala	Dobu Rural
		Duau Rural
		West Ferguson
Kiriwini-Goodenough District	Kiriwina	Goodenough Island Rural
		Kiriwini Rural
Samarai-Murua District	Murua	Bwanabwana Rural
		Louisade Rural
		Murua Rural
		Yaleyamba Rural

Islands and archipelagos

The islands of the province are more interesting than the mainland and the relatively new and unattractive capital Alotau . The D'Entrecasteaux Islands with the main islands Moratau / Fergusson (1345 km²), Duau / Normanby (1036 km²) and Nidula / Goodenough are very close to the mainland .

The Kiriwina Islands / Trobriand Islands, which are best known through the reports of the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski , are further away at the northern end of the territory lying in the ocean . The main island is Kiriwina .

Other important islands are Muyua ( Woodlark ) in the northeast and the Louisiade archipelago in the extreme southeast with the main island of Tagula (802 km²). There are also some smaller islands and archipelagos.

religion

On the Catholic side, the diocese of Alotau-Sideia is responsible for the province .

Kula

The inhabitants of the islands off Milne Bay are partly close to the Polynesian peoples of the South Seas , such as the Trobrianders . Only recently there was a non-commercial exchange ritual called Kula among the many and sometimes far apart islands . This ring exchange, in which only the closest exchange partners were known, was about maintaining good neighborly relationships. None of the tribes tried to enrich themselves with the ritual, which was intended to create lifelong friendships between the inhabitants of different islands. Red shell money necklaces were exchanged in one direction and valuable bracelets in the other. The tradition of the Kula ring created many cultural similarities in the very different tribes of the Milne Bay Islands.

literature

• Peter Brune: A Bastard of a Place. The Australians in Papua. Kokoda. Milne Bay. Gona. Buna. Sanananda. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW Australia 2003, ISBN 1-74114-403-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea