Admiralty Islands

Coordinates: 2°06′S 146°57′E / 2.100°S 146.950°E / -2.100; 146.950
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Admiralty Islands of Papua New Guinea. For the island in Alaska, see Admiralty Island. For the islands of New South Wales, see Admiralty Group. For other uses, see Admiralty Island (disambiguation).
"Admiralties" redirects here. For the office of the British Royal Navy, see Admiralty (United Kingdom). For the naval rank, see Admiral.
Admiralty Islands
Map of Papua New Guinea. The Admiralty Islands are in the dark red area at the top of the map.
Geography
Coordinates2°06′S 146°57′E / 2.100°S 146.950°E / -2.100; 146.950
Administration
ProvinceManus Province
Demographics
Population60485 (2011 Census)
Pop. density28.8/km2 (74.6/sq mi)

The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island.

These rainforest-covered islands constitute Manus Province, the smallest and least-populous province of Papua New Guinea, in its Islands Region. The total area is 2,100 km2 (810 sq mi). The province had a population of 60,485 at the 2011 Census. Many of the smaller Admiralty Islands are atolls and uninhabited.

Islands

The larger islands in the center of the group are Manus Island and Los Negros Island. The other larger islands are Tong Island, Pak Island, Rambutyo Island, Lou Island, and Baluan Island to the east, Mbuke Island to the south and Bipi Island to the west of Manus Island. Other islands that have been noted as significant places in the history of Manus include Ndrova Island, Pitylu Island and Ponam Island.[citation needed]

Geography

Manus is the largest of the Admiralty Islands.

The temperature of the Admiralty Islands varies little throughout the year, reaching daily highs of 30–32 °C (86–90 °F) and 20–24 °C (68–75 °F) at night. Average annual rainfall is 3,382 mm (133 in) and is somewhat seasonal, with June–August being the wettest months.[citation needed]

Manus reaches an elevation of 700 m (2,300 ft) and is volcanic in origin and probably broke through the ocean's surface in the late Miocene, 8–10 million years ago. The substrate of the island is either directly volcanic or from uplifted coral limestone.[citation needed]

The main town in the islands is Lorengau on Manus, connected by road to an airport on nearby Los Negros Island, otherwise transport around the islands is by boat. There is little tourism, although the seas are attractive to divers, including Jean-Michel Cousteau who spent time on nearby Wuvulu Island in the 1970s.

Ecology

Due to the isolated location, the rain forests of the Admiralty Islands are home to rare and endemic species of birds, bats and other animals, and are considered a separate ecoregion, the Admiralty Islands lowland rain forests. The majority of the forests on Manus still remain, but some of the smaller islands have been cleared for coconut farming. The typical tree species are various Calophyllum and Sararanga species.[1]

The 58.5 km2 (22.6 sq mi) Ndrolowa Wildlife Management Area was created in March 1985 south of Lorengau on Manus Island and contains both terrestrial and marine regions.[2] A further 240 km2 (93 sq mi) protected area has been established around the highest mountain on Manus, Mount Dremsel, but the level of protection remains undetermined in the UNEP World Database on Protected Areas.[3]

Three of the bird species endemic to Admiralty Islands have been listed as

ebony myzomela (Myzomela pammelaena).[citation needed
]

Mammals found only here or on nearby island groups include the large

Seri's sheathtail-bat (Emballonura serii) while the two pure-endemics are Admiralty Island cuscus (Spilocuscus kraemeri) and a local mosaic-tailed rat (Melomys matambuai).[1] The islands are home to two endemic Cornufer frogs (Cornufer admiraltiensis and Cornufer latro)[4] and four lizards, while the emerald green snail
of Manus was the first terrestrial snail to be listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.

History

Prehistory

Along with New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands Archipelago, the Admiralty Islands were first inhabited approximately 40,000 years[citation needed] ago, in the initial wave of migration out of Southeast Asia that also populated Australia. This early society appears to have cultivated taro, and to have deliberately introduced wild animals from New Guinea such as bandicoots and large rats. Obsidian was gathered and traded throughout the Admiralty Islands archipelago.[5]

The

stilt houses, the introduction of domestic animals such as pigs, dogs, and chickens, and substantial developments in agriculture and boat technology, allowing long-distance trade to develop. Lapita society, as a distinct culture and extended trade network, collapsed around 2,000 years ago.[5]

European and Japanese periods

The first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain in the summer of 1528.[6] Saavedra charted Manus as Urays la Grande.[7] Its visit was also reported in 1616 by the Dutch navigator Willem Schouten. The name 'Admiralty Islands' was devised by Captain Philip Carteret of the British Royal Navy in 1767.[8]

Between 1884 and 1914 the area was administered as a

Commonwealth of Australia under a League of Nations mandate.[9]

Manus Naval Base was built at Lombrum near Lorengau.[11]

Independence

Following Papuan independence in 1975, the Admiralty Islands became part of Papua New Guinea.[citation needed]

They became the Manus Province of the Islands Region in Papua New Guinea.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Admiralty Islands lowland rain forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
  2. ^ UNEP World Database on Protected Areas: Ndrolowa Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ UNEP World Database on Protected Areas: Mt. Dremsel Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ISSN 1175-5334. Archived
    (PDF) from the original on 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2009-12-26.
  5. ^ a b Spriggs, Matthew (1997). "Recent History (The Holocene)". In Denoon, Donald (ed.). The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–69.
  6. ^ Brand, Donald D. The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.121
  7. ^ Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, pp.234,309,310
  8. ISBN 0-7858-1307-1
    .
  9. ISBN 0-7022-1856-1. Archived
    from the original on 2007-09-06.
  10. ^ L, Klemen (1999–2000). "Manus Island, experience of No. 4 Section, 'B' Platoon, First Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14.
  11. Washington, DC: United States Army Center of Military History. Archived
    from the original on 5 March 2009.

References

External links

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