Pulau Berhala (Sabah)

Pulau Berhala
Pulau Berhala; in the foreground Kg. Berhala Darat
Waters	Sulu Lake
Geographical location	5 ° 52 '13 "  N , 118 ° 8' 40"  E Coordinates: 5 ° 52 '13 "  N , 118 ° 8' 40"  E
length	3.7 km
width	1.1 km
surface	3 km²
Highest elevation	130  m
Residents	approx. 30 fishermen and family members 10 inhabitants / km²
main place	Kampung Berhala

Pulau Berhala is an island belonging to Malaysia in the Sulu Sea and is located about one kilometer off the northeast coast of Borneo in the entrance to Sandakan Bay.

description

The approximately 3 square kilometer island extends over a length of 3.7 kilometers and is up to one kilometer wide. The northern part is fairly flat, while at the southern end there are two conspicuous, roughly equal hills of 130 m high, which slope evenly to the west and form a steep coast on the lake side. At the highest point of the island there is a 20 m high lighthouse.

Today around nine fishing families live permanently on the forested island. The village of Berhala is in the northwest.

An Australian delegation visits Pulau Berhala on October 23, 1945

history

Before World War II, the island was used as a quarantine station for Chinese and Filipino labor immigrants and housed a leper colony . The quarantine station was initially used as a provisional internment camp for civilians during the war. The poet Agnes Newton Keith and her husband Harry Keith were also held here before they were taken with the other internees to the Batu Lintang camp in Kuching, Sarawak. After that, prisoners of war were interned in the camp on Berhala. In June 1943, Berhala was the scene of a daring escape attempt in which several prisoners of war managed to escape to Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines.

Another "prominent" internee was the Chinese Consul General in Sabah, Cho Huan Lai . He was later executed by the Kempeitai in Keningau .

fauna

Various birds of prey nest on Berhala, including Brahmin Weih (Haliastur indus) , short-toed eagles and white- tailed eagles . In October and November the island is used as a resting place for migrating birds .

Web links

Commons : Pulau Berhala  - Collection of Images

• Climbing the cliffs of Berhala Island ; Accessed January 27, 2012
• Private website with photos and descriptions of the island. Retrieved January 14, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sailing Directions (Enroute) - Borneo, Jawa, Sulawesi and NUsa Tenggara (PDF; 5.8 MB), United States Navy Publication 163, sector 10, page 16, 2002; Accessed August 24, 2012
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Berhala Island !!!  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Accessed January 27, 2012  
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ PULAU BERHALA (Indonesian)

Remarks

1. ↑ The value was approximately determined by determining the area of ​​the satellite image from google maps; the size of 5 hectares that appears in the literature is obviously wrong.