Milne Bay Province

The Milne Bay Province is one of the 21 provinces of Papua New Guinea. It is approximately 14,000 km ² and has around 210,000 inhabitants. Capital is Alotau with almost 10,000 inhabitants in 2000.

Milne Bay is not a pure island province; nearly half of the province is on the mainland and forms the extreme southeastern tip of the island of New Guinea. Only in the extreme west of the infrastructure is not well developed province has with the foothills of the Owen Stanley mountains higher elevations. The rest of the mainland part consists of many peninsulas and bays, among which the Milne Bay is just one.

History

John Moresby ( named after the city of Port Moresby ) originally named only the southeastern tip of the island of Cape Milne when he circumnavigated in 1873 by the then most senior British naval chief Sir Alexander Milne, First Baronet of Inveresk ( 1806-1896 ). The bay behind it he named Discovery Bay, but it was eventually renamed in 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 organizations. This was the first step on the road to reclaiming large parts of New Guinea by the Allies, which lasted until September 1945.

Districts and LLGs

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

Islands and archipelagos

More interesting than the mainland and the relatively new and regarded as unattractive capital Alotau are the islands of the province. The mainland are quite close to the D' Entrecasteaux Islands with the main islands Moratau / Fergusson ( 1345 km ²), Duau / Normanby ( 1036 km ²) and Nidula / Goodenough.

Further away on the northern end of the territory in the ocean which are the Kiriwina-Inseln/Trobriand-Inseln which are mainly known through the reports of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. The main island is Kiriwina.

Other important islands are Muyua ( Woodlark ) to the northeast and the Louisiade archipelago in the extreme southeast of the main island of white-throated (802 km ²). There are also several smaller islands and island groups.

Kula

The inhabitants of the islands off Milne Bay are close partially the Polynesian peoples of the South Pacific, such as in the Trobriand Islanders. Until recently, there were among the many and sometimes widely separated islands a non-commercial exchange ritual called Kula. In this exchange of rings, in which were always known only to the next exchange partners, it was about the good neighborly relations. None of the strains was trying to enrich themselves at the ritual that should cause lifelong friendships between the inhabitants of different islands. Were exchanged in one direction red shell money necklaces in the other valuable bracelets. The tradition of the Kula ring created in very different strains of the Milne Bay Islands share many cultural similarities.