Papua New Guinea
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Guide to Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is one of the worlds last explored regions. Due to it's remoteness and rugged terrain, the interior of Papua New Guinea remained unexplored until well into the 20th century and even today, there are plenty of places where tourists simply have never been, or rarely visit.
The website is dedicated to the people of Papua New Guinea and the expansion of knowledge of the cultures and regions within it.
We encourage you to contribute if you have knowledge or information to share with others. To contribute or modify existing information on the web site, simply login using the login button at the top right of each page.
Specifically we are looking to expand the knowledgebase for the following Papua New Guinea regions...
Geography
At 462,840 km² (178,704 sq mi), Papua New Guinea is the world's fifty-fourth largest country, so it's not huge, but very rugged. It is comparable in size to Sweden, and larger than the US state of California.
Papua New Guinea is mostly mountainous (highest peak: Mount Wilhelm at 4,509 m; 14,793 ft) and mostly covered with tropical rainforest, as well as very large wetland areas surrounding the Sepik and Fly rivers. Papua New Guinea is surrounded by coral reefs which are under close watch to preserve them.
The country is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, at the point of collision of several tectonic plates. There are a number of active volcanoes and eruptions are frequent. Earthquakes are relatively common, sometimes accompanied by tsunamis.
The mainland of the country is the eastern half of New Guinea island, where the largest towns are also located, including the capital Port Moresby and Lae; other major islands within Papua New Guinea include New Ireland, New Britain, Manus and Bougainville.
Papua New Guinea is one of the few regions close to the equator that experience snowfall, which sometimes occurs in the most elevated parts of the mainland.
Regions, provinces and districts
Papua New Guinea is divided into four regions, which are not the primary administrative divisions, but are quite significant in many aspects of government, commercial, sporting and other activities.
The nation has 20 province-level divisions: eighteen provinces, the autonomous province of North Solomons (Bougainville) and the National Capital District (Papua New Guinea). Each province is divided into one or more districts, which in turn are divided into one or more Local Level Government areas.
Provinces
The Constitution of Papua New Guinea sets out the names of the 19 provinces at the time of Independence. Several provinces have changed their names. Such changes are not strictly speaking official without a formal constitutional amendment, though "Oro," for example, is universally used in reference to that province. Provincial governments are branches of the national government — Papua New Guinea is not a federation of provinces. The province-level divisions are as follows:
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Getting there
Jacksons International Airport services the international flights to and from Port Moresby.
Major Airlines
Security
There is a page dedicated to the discussion of security in Papau New Guinea. Go to the security page.
