New Ireland (island)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Ireland (Tok Pisin: Niu Ailan) is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 8,650 km² in area. It is the main and largest island of the New Ireland Province. It lies northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are a part of the Bismarck Archipelago and are separated by the Saint George's Channel. The administrative centre of the island and the province is Kavieng.
[edit] Geography
The island is part of the Bismarck Archipelago and is often described as having the shape of a musket. The tropical island of New Ireland is long, narrow and mountainous covered by several mountain ranges and dense rainforest. For much of its 320 km length, it is less than 10 km across, yet the central mountainous spine is very steep and rugged. The highest peak is Lambel (2,150 metres or 7,054 feet). The island lies between one and five degrees south of the equator.
New Ireland is surrounded by the Bismarck Sea in the southwest and by the Pacific Ocean in the northeast.
[edit] History
In 1616 the Dutch sailors Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten were the first Europeans to set foot on the island. From 1885 to 1914 New Ireland was a part of German New Guinea and bore the name Neumecklenburg. Germans managed several highly profitable copra plantations and built a road to transport the goods. This road is currently in service and is named the Boluminski Highway after the German administrator of German New Guinea, Franz Boluminski. In World War II, New Ireland was captured by the Japanese forces and was under their control.
[edit] External links
- Entry at the Linköping University
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