Portal:New Guinea
![]() | Portal maintenance status: (April 2022)
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The New Guinea Portal
Introduction
Native name: Papua, Niugini, Niu Gini | |
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Geography | |
Location | Oceania (Melanesia) |
Archipelago | Melanesia and Malay Archipelago |
Area | 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi) |
Area rank | 2nd |

New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Niugini; Hiri Motu: Niu Gini; Indonesian: Papua, fossilized Nugini, also known as Papua or historically Irian) is the world's second-largest island, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre (81-nautical-mile; 93-mile) wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the perceived resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the African region of Guinea. (Full article...)
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. It has a land border with Indonesia to the west and neighbours Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi). (Full article...)
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat). It is one of the seven geographical units of Indonesia in ISO 3166-2:ID. (Full article...)
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Image 1
Papua New Guinea Location. Coordinates =
The crime rate of Papua New Guinea is one of the highest in the world.
Crime throughout the country, particularly violence-related, has been influenced mainly by rapid social, political and economic changes. An increased rate of unemployment has resulted in poverty in rural areas, while a sequential shift towards urban areas has created cultural friction. This has become a long-term concern hindering the growth of the economy. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability index, Papua New Guinea ranks 136th out of 140 countries as of 2017, indicating that many aspects of living in the country are relatively unsecure.
The centralised geographical location of Papua New Guinea has also seen the rise of non-violent, organised crime; specifically, corruption contributing substantially to increased crime statistics within the major cities of Port Moresby, Mount Hagen, Lae and Goroka. The geographically appealing qualities of Papua New Guinea and its surrounding islands also promote illegal drug and human trafficking as critical issues. (Full article...) -
Image 2Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has been inhabited by humans for at least 29,000 years, according to artefacts found in Kilu Cave on Buka Island. The region is named after Bougainville Island, the largest island of the Solomon Islands archipelago, but also contains a number of smaller islands.
The first arrivals in Bougainville were ethnically Australo-Melanesian, related to Papuans and Aboriginal Australians. Around 3,000 years ago, Austronesians associated with the Lapita culture also settled on the islands, bringing agriculture and pottery. Present-day Bougainvilleans are descended from a mixture of the two populations, and both Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages are spoken to this day.
In 1616, Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire became the first Europeans to sight the islands. The main island was named after French admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who reached it in 1768. The German Empire placed Bougainville under a protectorate in 1886, while the remainder of the Solomon Islands became part of the British Empire in 1893. The present-day boundaries between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands were established by the Tripartite Convention of 1899. The incorporation of Bougainville into German New Guinea initially had little economic impact, although the associated Catholic missions succeeded in converting a majority of the islanders to Christianity. (Full article...) -
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Lae (/ˈlɑːeɪ, ˈleɪi/, German: Preußen-Reede, later Lehe) is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River on the northern coast of Huon Gulf. It is at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highlands Region and the coast. Lae is the largest cargo port of the country and is the industrial hub of Papua New Guinea. The city is known as the Garden City and home of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. (Full article...) -
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Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea (Dutch: Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, Indonesian: Irian Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. It contained what are now Indonesia's six easternmost provinces, Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua, which were administered as a single province prior to 2003 under the name Irian Jaya, and now comprise the Papua region of the country.
During the Indonesian Revolution, the Dutch launched politionele acties to capture territory from the Indonesian Republic. However, the harsh methods of the Dutch had drawn international disapproval. With international opinion shifting towards support of the Indonesian Republic, the Dutch managed in 1949 to negotiate for the separation of Dutch New Guinea from the broader Indonesian settlement, with the fate of the disputed territory to be decided by the close of 1950. However, the Dutch in coming years were able to argue successfully at the UN that the indigenous population of Dutch New Guinea represented a separate ethnic group from the people of Indonesia and thus should not be absorbed into the Indonesian state.
In contrast, the Indonesian Republic, as successor state to the Netherlands East Indies, claimed Dutch New Guinea as part of its natural territorial bounds. The dispute over New Guinea was an important factor in the quick decline in bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia after Indonesian independence. The dispute escalated into low-level conflict in 1962 following Dutch moves in 1961 to establish a New Guinea Council. (Full article...) -
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Papua New Guinea face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Male same-sex sexual activity is illegal, punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. The law is rarely enforced, but arrests still do happen, having occurred in 2015 and 2022. There are no legal restrictions against lesbian sex in the country.
Attitudes towards LGBT people are greatly influenced by Christian churches, as a majority of Papua New Guineans are Christian. Historically, gay men had certain societal roles. They would take on traditional female roles such as cooking and would participate with women in traditional festivals. However, some tribes were observed to have practiced ritual homosexuality, such as the Etoro, Kaluli, and Sambia peoples.
A lot of the attitudes towards LGBT people are also influenced by Australia's early occupation of Papua New Guinea. The Australian criminal law, originally derived from the Queensland Criminal Code created during British colonization, was extended to Papua New Guinea. Despite the Australian states starting to decriminalize same-sex sexual activity in 1975, Papua New Guinea retained this provision due to gaining independence in the same year, resulting in the continued criminalization of such activity there. (Full article...) -
Image 6Agriculture in Papua New Guinea has more than a 7,000 years old history, and developed out of pre-agricultural plant/food collecting and cultivation traditions of local hunter-gatherers. Currently around 85% of Papua New Guinea's population lives from semi-subsistence agriculture. 86% of all food energy consumed in Papua New Guinea is locally sourced.
Papua New Guinea produces and exports agricultural, timber, and fish products. Agriculture in 2017 accounted for 22.1% of the GDP and supported more than 80% of the population. Cash crops ranked by value are coffee, oil, cocoa, copra, tea, rubber, and sugar. The timber industry was not active in 1998, due to low world prices, but rebounded in 1999. About 40% of the country is covered with timber rich trees, and a domestic woodworking industry has been slow to develop. 99% of fishing exports are either tuna or tuna byproduct. Papua New Guinea has the largest yam market in Asia. (Full article...) -
Image 7NGAWW signallers near Nassau Bay, July 1943
The New Guinea Air Warning Wireless, also known as the "New Guinea Air Warning Wireless Company", "NGAWW", or "The Spotters", was a unique signals unit of the Australian Army formed in January 1942 in Port Moresby, Territory of Papua, during World War II, to provide early warning of Japanese air attack, and subsequently providing surveillance of shipping and ground-based troops. During the first month of operations 16 stations were established, with positions set up along the Papuan coast as well as in the mountains near Port Moresby. They often operated behind Japanese lines and were at risk of being captured by the Japanese due to the nature of their operations, while a number of outstations were over-run and the men manning them killed. By the end of 1942 the company was maintaining 61 operational stations and had a strength of 180 men.
Eventually, at its peak in late 1944 there were more than 150 spotter stations deployed on islands and mainland territories throughout Papua, New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea. The company's headquarters moved to Nadzab in June 1944, by which time stations had been established as far as Hollandia. However, in September 1944 the Australian military decided that it would not agree to American requests for the unit to serve outside the Australian area of operations and it was subsequently withdrawn after being left without a future operational role. Returning to Australia, it was disbanded in April 1945. Many of its members received awards for their actions, with the company having the distinction of being Australia's most highly decorated signals unit of World War II. (Full article...) -
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The Sulu Range is a small volcanic mountain range on the Papua New Guinean island of New Britain. It consists of a group of partially overlapping small stratovolcanoes and lava domes, with the highest point being 610 m (2,000 ft) Mount Malopu at the southwestern end of the range. Kaiamu, a maar at the northwestern end of the Sulu Range, forms a peninsula with a small lake extending about 1 km (0.62 mi) into Bangula Bay. Other volcanoes in the range include Mount Ululu, Mount Ruckenberg, Mount Talutu and Mount Ubia.
The Sulu Range consists of volcanic rocks ranging in composition from basaltic-to-rhyolitic. Eruptions are not known to have occurred from the range in recorded history, although some of the cones are relatively undissected, implying that there may have been eruptions throughout the Holocene. Volcanic unrest in 2006 resulted in the creation of a vigorous new fumarolic vent, which was preceded by vegetation die-off, seismicity and dust-producing landslides.
On the coastal plain west of the southwest base of the Sulu Range lies the Walo hydrothermal area, which consists of solfataras and mudpots. The fumaroles in this hydrothermal area have been used by locals for cooking food. (Full article...) -
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The Battle of Bita Paka (11 September 1914) was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent occupation of German New Guinea by the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Similar to New Zealand's operation against German Samoa in August, the main target of the operation was a strategically important wireless station—one of several used by the German East Asia Squadron—which the Australians believed to be located in the area. The powerful German naval fleet threatened British interests and its elimination was an early priority of the British and Australian governments during the war.
After an unopposed landing, a mixed force of German reservists and half-trained Melanesian police mounted a stout resistance and forced the Australians to fight their way to the objective. After a day of fighting during which both sides suffered casualties, Australian forces captured the wireless station at Bita Paka. The battle was Australia's first major military engagement of the war and the only significant action of the campaign; in its aftermath the remaining German forces on New Britain fled inland to Toma. Following a brief siege there the German garrison capitulated, ending resistance to the Australian occupation of the island. (Full article...) -
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The Ok Tedi is a river in New Guinea. The Ok Tedi Mine is located near the headwaters of the river, which is sourced in the Star Mountains. It is the second largest tributary of the Fly River. Nearly the entirety of the Ok Tedi runs through the North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, but the river crosses the international boundary with Indonesia for less than one kilometre. The largest settlement of the Western Province, Tabubil is located near its banks. (Full article...) -
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Samuel Tei Abal (born 26 June 1958) is a Papua New Guinean politician. Abal, who previously served as Foreign Minister from August 2007 to December 2010, became the Deputy Prime Minister of the country in a cabinet reshuffle by Michael Somare on 7 December 2010. He further became acting Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea on 13 December 2010, when Prime Minister Somare stepped down from office to face a tribunal regarding allegations of financial mismanagement. His tenure as acting Prime Minister ended on 2 August 2011, when Peter O'Neill won a parliamentary vote to be appointed as Prime Minister. Since October 2021, he is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Papua New Guinea to Japan. (Full article...) -
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The white-lipped tree frog (Nyctimystes infrafrenatus) is a species of frog in the subfamily Pelodryadinae. It is the world's largest tree frog (the Cuban tree frog reaches a similar maximum size) and is found in Australia. Other common names include the New Guinea treefrog, giant tree frog, and Australian giant treefrog. (Full article...) -
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Daru is the capital of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea and a former Catholic bishopric. Daru town falls under the jurisdiction of Daru Urban LLG.
The township is entirely located on an island that goes by the same name, which is located near the mouth of the Fly River on the western side of the Gulf, just north of Torres Strait and Far North Queensland in Australia. Daru had a recorded population of 15,142 as of the 2011 census. (Full article...) -
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The Republic of West Papua (Indonesian: Republik Papua Barat), alternatively known as the Federal Republic of West Papua (Indonesian: Republik Federal Papua Barat, RFPB) is a proposed state consisting of the Western New Guinea region, which is currently part of Indonesia on the continent of Oceania. The region has been part of Indonesia since 1 May 1963 under several names in the following order, West Irian, Irian Jaya, and Papua. Today the region comprises six Indonesian provinces: Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, West Papua, and Southwest Papua.
The proposal is supported by the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu with the Parliament of Vanuatu passing the Wantok Blong Yumi Bill (Our Close Friends) in 2010, officially declaring that Vanuatu's foreign policy is to support the achievement of the independence of West Papua. The parliament has proposed requesting that West Papua be granted observer status at the Melanesian Spearhead Group and Pacific Islands Forum.
The Republic of West Papua has been a member state of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since the organization's founding in 1991. (Full article...) -
Image 15Location of the Torres Strait Islands, between Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi).
The Islands are inhabited by the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Lieutenant James Cook first claimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of Australia at Possession Island in 1770, but British administrative control only began in the Torres Strait Islands in 1862. The islands are now mostly part of Queensland, a constituent State of the Commonwealth of Australia, but are administered by the Torres Strait Regional Authority, a statutory authority of the Australian federal government. A few islands very close to the coast of mainland New Guinea belong to the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, most importantly Daru Island and its provincial capital, Daru.
Only 17 of the islands are inhabited. The Torres Strait Islands' population was recorded at 4,514 in the 2016 Australian census, with 91.8% of these identifying as Indigenous Torres Strait Island peoples. Although counted as Indigenous Australians, Torres Strait Islander peoples, being predominantly Melanesian, are ethnically and culturally different from Aboriginal Australians. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated)

- ... that in 1984, more than 10,000 Papuans from West Papua crossed into Papua New Guinea as refugees due to a government crackdown?
- ... that Dorkas Tokoro-Hanasbey, the only female member of the New Guinea Council, arrived thirty minutes late to her inauguration ceremony?
- ... that artifacts of Papua New Guinean art were called "living spirits with fixed abodes"?
- ... that until Rufina Peter and Kessy Sawang's election in August 2022, Papua New Guinea was one of only three countries without a woman in parliament?
- ... that David Dexter, who wrote the New Guinea volume in the series Australia in the War of 1939–1945, was a commando who served in East Timor and New Guinea?
- ... that Australiformis semoni is a parasite that infests marsupials in Australia and New Guinea and whose infestation could cause debilitating ulcerative granulomatous gastritis?
General images - show new batch
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Image 1The lowland rainforest of the Western New Guinea (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 4Papuan lake dwellings with a lakatoi under sail, 1898 or before (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 5Regions of Oceania: Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Australasia include the Australian landmass (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 6Australian soldiers resting in the Finisterre Ranges of New Guinea while en route to the front line (from New Guinea)
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Image 8Map of New Guinea, with place names as used in English in the 1940s (from New Guinea)
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Image 9Topographical map of New Guinea (from New Guinea)
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Image 11Political divisions of New Guinea (2006) (from New Guinea)
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Image 12M.S. Rumagesan, Silas Papare, N.L.Suwages, Soegoro Atmoprasodjo [id], and A.H. Nasution in Putra-putra Irian Barat ('Sons of Irian Barat') Conference in Cibogo Bogor, 14–15 April 1961 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 14The king bird-of-paradise is one of over 300 bird species on the peninsula. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 15British flag raised in Queensland 1883 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 17An Australian soldier, Private George "Dick" Whittington, is aided by Papuan orderly Raphael Oimbari, near Buna on 25 December 1942. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 18Kepala Panjang dance, a sacred healing ritual to absorb negative energy of the Draa people from Yaffi District in Keerom. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 19Since 2002, display of the flag of West Papua is allowed in West Papua only if accompanied by, and not raised higher than, the flag of Indonesia. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 20The rugged and mountainous topography of Western New Guinea. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 21Yali Mabel, Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley (from New Guinea)
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Image 22Flag under German control of New Guinea. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 25Handover ceremony of West Irian Governorship from Jan Bonay to Frans Kaisiepo, 1965 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 29Papuans on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13 (from New Guinea)
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Image 30Free West Papua protest in Melbourne, Australia, August 2012. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 31Map showing the combined landmass of Sahul formed during Pleistocene glacations (from New Guinea)
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Image 35New Guinea Volunteer Rifles with captured Japanese flag, 1942 (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 38Australian troops at Milne Bay, Papua.The Australian garrison was the first to inflict defeat on the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II at the Battle of Milne Bay of Aug–Sep 1942. (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 43West Papuan separatists raising the Morning-Star flag in the jungles of Papua, 1971 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 44Trans-New Guinea languages (multi-coloured), Austronesian languages (gold), and other languages (grey) (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 46Local people from Biak during a ceremony (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 47U.S troops landing in Tanahmerah Bay during Operation Reckless, 1944 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 49Dutch expeditions in Netherlands New Guinea 1907–1915. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 50Highlands of Papua New Guinea (from New Guinea)
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Image 51New Guinea from 1884 to 1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea, Germany the north-eastern part, and Britain the south-eastern part. (from New Guinea)
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Image 52Regions of Oceania: Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Physiographically, Australasia includes the Australian landmass (including Tasmania), New Zealand, and New Guinea (from New Guinea)
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Image 55Grasberg Mine in Mimika Regency. Mining is the most important sector in the province (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 56Dutch and Papuan officials during the opening of the Central Hospital in Hollandia, 1959 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 57Sentani International Airport in Jayapura is the principal point of entry to Papua (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 58Papua New Guinea map of Köppen climate classification (from New Guinea)
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Image 59Jayapura, the most populous and largest city on the island of New Guinea (Papua) (from New Guinea)
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Image 61A section of Trans-Papua Highway connecting Deiyai and Mimika in Central Papua (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 63The Sukarno-era West Irian Liberation Monument in Lapangan Banteng, Jakarta. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 64The continent of Sahul before the rising ocean sundered Australia and New Guinea after the last ice age (from New Guinea)
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Image 65 (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 66A 1644 map of New Guinea and the surrounding area (from New Guinea)
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Image 67The Nagarakertagama mentioned a region in the east called Wanin, present-day Onin Peninsula in the Fakfak Regency, West Papua (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 68Dutch expeditions in Netherlands New Guinea 1907–1915. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 69A typical map from the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography. Australasia during the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (ca. 1590s–1720s): including Nova Guinea (New Guinea), Nova Hollandia (mainland Australia), Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and Nova Zeelandia (New Zealand). (from History of Papua New Guinea)
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Image 70Group of natives at Mairy Pass. Mainland of British New Guinea in 1885. (from New Guinea)
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Image 71Before the 1970s, the Korowai people of Papua were an uncontacted people. (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 72Traditional Papuan dagger (from Western New Guinea)
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Image 73A Japanese military map of New Guinea from 1943 (from New Guinea)
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General topics
Provincial capitals of Papua New Guinea | |
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Regencies and cities of Central Papua | |
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Capital: Wanggar, Nabire Regency | |
Regencies |
Regencies of South Papua | |
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Capital: Salor, Merauke Regency | |
Regencies |
Regencies and cities of West Papua | |
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Capital: Manokwari | |
Regencies |
Regencies and cities of Southwest Papua | |
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Capital: Sorong | |
Regencies | |
Cities |
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