Rossel Island

Rossel ( Yela also ) is the easternmost island of the archipelago Louisiade, politically it is part of the Milne Bay Province in the southeastern part of Papua New Guinea.

Population

According to the 2000 census, the island had 3,821 inhabitants, distributed among 27 villages and four separate facilities. In addition, 70 residents were on the small located off the northwestern coast neighboring island W. & LE Iceland (High Iceland ). Biggest Towns are Pumba and Cheme in the northeast of the island near the capital Jinjo.

F1 map with all coordinates: OSM, Google and Bing

History

The Louisiade archipelago has been inhabited since about 1500 BC by Polynesians. Probably the islands of the archipelago were discovered in 1606 by the Spanish captain Luiz Vaez de Torres. In 1768 she visited Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who. According to the then French King Louis XV named. The island Rossel was named in 1793 by Joseph Bruny d' Entrecasteaux after geoscientist Elizabeth Paul Edouard de Rossel, the former first officer of the frigate research and later Rear Admiral.

In 1858 came the downfall of the French ship St. Paul, under the command of Captain Pennant with 327 Chinese coolies on their way to Australia before Rossel. A search and rescue mission of the ship Styx under the command of Lieutenant Grimoult which returned on 25 January 1859 stated that all the survivors, except for one Chinese man who was brought to Sydney, were killed and eaten by the locals after the other.

Description

The volcanic island extends 34 km in east-west direction, it is up to 11 km wide. With an area of ​​262.5 km ², it is by Vanatinai the second largest island of the archipelago. In 1978 the population was estimated at 3,000 people. The inhabitants speak yeli Dnye, a language isolate. The main town is Jinjo on the east coast. Rossel is covered with dense forest, almost the entire southern coast is completely wooded. The higher elevations are constantly overcast during the Southeast monsoon.

The highest point is 838 m, Mount Rossel (also Mbgö ) near the east end of the island, Cape Deliverance. The craggy peak points in a northerly and westerly direction on steep slopes, while he runs flat to the south. The south-western ridge has two highly visible peaks that rise both 549 m high. The eastern, Mount Mo, has a flat plateau, while the western is conical. At the western end of the island is a conspicuous conical peak with an altitude of 347 m.

A fringing reef surrounds the large, about 88 km long and up to 20 km wide Rossel Lagoon to the west and a small lagoon on the east. The Rossel Lagoon extends over 40 km from the westernmost point of the island to the Rossel passage at the west end of the fringing reef. The barrier reef that surrounds the island is narrow and has four entrances in the west of the island. The barrier reef extends south through downwards to the Rossel Passage. The lagoon is 37-64 m deep, with a variety of sandbars.

A kind of mosaic pack rats, Melomys arcium is endemic to Rossel.

By definition, the International Hydrographic Organization ( IHO ) a line from the south-eastern tip of the island of New Guinea forms by the Louisiade archipelago until after Rossel the southwest border of Salomonensee the Coral Sea. See the section about Coral Sea, however, is that this line stretches along the reefs of the uluma Reefs to white-throated.