New Guinea

I

Introduction

New Guinea, island in the western Pacific Ocean, north of Australia. It is the largest of the Pacific Islands, and the second largest island in the world, after Greenland. New Guinea is divided between two countries. The western half of the island consists of the Indonesian province of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), and the eastern portion contains the vast majority of the independent state of Papua New Guinea, which also includes several hundred smaller islands. The total area of New Guinea is 808,510 sq km (312,170 sq mi).

II

Land and Resources

New Guinea is long and narrow, stretching in a northwest to southeast direction across the ocean. From east to west the island spans about 2200 km (about 1400 mi), and from north to south it spans about 1100 km (about 700 mi) at its widest point. A series of mountain ranges, among them the Maoke Mountains in Papua and the Central Range in Papua New Guinea, extend from northwest to southeast. The mountains include peaks that rise to more than 4800 m (15,700 ft). At 5030 m (16,503 ft), Puncak Jaya, in Papua’s Maoke Mountains, is New Guinea’s highest peak. Numerous river valleys lie between the mountains. Dense rain forests that contain ebony, sandalwood, cedar, and camphor trees cover much of the interior; pine forests are found at higher elevations. The plains in the interior are fertile, but transportation difficulties caused by the mountainous terrain have slowed their development. Many of the coastal areas are low-lying and swampy.

Deposits in New Guinea’s interior contain minerals such as gold, silver, platinum, and especially copper. A mine near Tembagapura, a small town just south of Puncak Jaya, contains the world’s largest known concentration of copper. The same site also contains the world’s largest single gold reserve, estimated at about 2.3 million kg (about 5.1 million lb). Another major copper deposit is found at Ok Tedi, located in Papua New Guinea at the headwaters of the Fly River. There are thought to be many more potential copper, gold, and silver deposits in the area. Papua also has important petroleum and natural gas reserves, which have been exploited in the area of the Doberai Peninsula at the island’s far northwestern tip. Papua New Guinea has large reserves of both petroleum and natural gas. Production of Papua New Guinea’s oil and gas began on the mainland in the area of the Fly and Kikori rivers in 1992.

New Guinea lies just south of the equator and generally has a hot, humid climate, although temperatures and humidity are lower in mountainous areas. The mountains also affect precipitation in many places. Some areas, for example, lie in the rain shadow of mountains and receive relatively little precipitation, while snow is not uncommon on mountaintops. The annual precipitation ranges widely from 760 to 5840 mm (30 to 230 in).

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Animal life is similar to that of Australia. There are several varieties of mammals. New Guinea’s marsupials, for example, include tree kangaroos, phalangers, and wallabies, while monotremes (egg-laying mammals) include spiny anteaters. There are also numerous reptiles, including snakes, New Guinea crocodiles, and lizards; and about 650 species of birds, including many varieties of colorful birds of paradise. Insects are abundant and include Anopheles mosquitoes, which carry malaria, and huge butterflies with 30-cm (12-in) wingspans.

III

Population

The 1995 estimated population of New Guinea, including some of the outlying small islands, was about 5,300,000. The indigenous people belong to the closely related Papuan and Melanesian culture groups. Papuans comprise the vast majority of the island’s population. There are about 700 Papuan languages and dialects, which belong to the Papuan linguistic family. Melanesians speak languages of the Austronesian language family, which includes most indigenous languages spoken throughout the Pacific Islands. Small, nonindigenous groups also live in New Guinea. They include the descendants of early Chinese traders, Europeans and Australians, and Javanese and other Indonesians who have migrated to the province of Papua. Indonesia began a transmigration program in the 1960s to encourage people to move from the crowded islands of Java and Bali to islands with a lower population density. As a result, the indigenous population of Papua has gradually become proportionally smaller, and some native New Guineans in Papua have rebelled against the Indonesian government. More than four-fifths of the island’s population is rural. Port Moresby is Papua New Guinea’s major city and national capital, and Jayapura is the largest city and capital of the province of Papua.

IV

Economy

The economy of New Guinea is mostly undeveloped. The great majority of people depend upon subsistence agriculture, hunting, and fishing to provide them with food. Major subsistence crops include bananas, corn, cassava, sago, yams, and taro. There are a few large plantations that produce cocoa, coffee, and copra (dried coconut meat) for export. Exported logs and lumber from New Guinea’s extensive forests provide important revenue. By far, the most important mineral resources in terms of revenue are copper and copper concentrates, gold, petroleum, and natural gas. Large deposits of silver are also mined.

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