PNG - THE FACTS

Name:
In the 1500’s, Portuguese explorers named the island “Ilhas dos Papuas”, which means Island of the Fuzzy Hairs. Dutch explorers called it New Guinea because the people reminded them of those in Guinea, West Africa.

Toward the end of the last century, the country was divided among the Dutch, British and Germans. The western half became Dutch New Guinea, the northeastern quarter German New Guinea and the southeastern quarter British New Guinea.

During World War I, Australia captured German New Guinea, which was later assigned to Australia as a League of Nations Trust Territory. Australia governed both German and British New Guinea as separate colonies, namely: Papua and the Territory of New Guinea. When the nation gained independence in 1975, the name was changed to Papua New Guinea. Dutch New Guinea remained under Dutch rule until 1962 when Indonesia took over and called it Irian Jaya.

Geography

Papua New Guinea comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the second largest island in the world) along with a collection of smaller islands to the north and east: Manus, New Ireland, New Britain, and the North Solomons. The central spine of PNG is a high range of mountains with peaks over 4000 meters or 13,000 feet high. No road has been built across the country, so travel from north to south is only by air, foot or ship. In places, these mountains descend to the sea in diminishing foothills while in other regions broad expanses of mangrove swamps fringe the coast. The western region is an endless expanse of flat grassland, sparsely populated and teeming with wildlife.

The Fly and Sepik Rivers are the largest in the country. The Sepik flows north and empties into the Bismark Sea while the Fly flows south, emptying into the Gulf of Papua.

Because PNG lies in the Pacific volcano belt, tremors are felt regularly. However, active volcanoes are confined to the islands; the most recent eruption was in 1995 on an island off the coast of New Britain. It completely destroyed the city of Rabaul, the capital of East New Britain province.

Reefs around much of the mainland coast and the islands make it a scuba diver's paradise.

Population

The Highlands alone account for 38% of the country's population of 5.5 million people. The availability of the nourishing sweet potato, which grows well in cold and poor soil, allowed the colonization of higher regions, domestication of pigs and the resultant increase in population. Sweet potato remains the staple food for the Highlands Region.

The people fall into four main categories - Papuans (from the south), Highlanders, New Guineans (from the north) and Islanders. Their physical appearance ranges from the very black Solomon Islanders, probably the most black-skinned people in the world, to the lighter-skinned Polynesian people in the south. Highland men are often short, stocky and bearded.

The expatriate population was around 50,000 at its peak in 1971 and may now be down around 20,000. The majority are Australians but there are also Germans, British, Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Malaysians, Indonesians and Filipinos. It has been said that if you come to PNG you’re either a missionary or a mercenary. Many of the expatriate workers are on short-term lucrative contracts with international companies. However, some long-term resident Australian and Chinese were eligible for citizenship at independence. This was granted on the condition that they renounce their original citizenship. Many did, and some now hold high positions in the government. Some are even members of parliament.

Climate

Officially there is a wet and a dry season. Many years ago these seasons were quite distinct; however it would now be accurate to call them the wetter and drier seasons. These wet and dry seasons vary around the country, so it is possible to travel from the Highlands during dry season and arrive in Lae on the east coast in wet season. Rainfall is generally heavy, ranging from 40" per year in Port Moresby to 240" in West New Britain. Temperatures on the coasts are usually a hot and humid 95oF or 36oC. The Highlands has little humidity and daily temperatures around 80oF or 26oC while at night it can get down to 50oF or 10oC.

Government

The National Parliament resides in Port Moresby. Its members are democratically elected for a four-year term of office. There is no limit to the number of candidates for any given electorate, which can mean that the elected representative has less than 10% of the votes of his constituency. This has led to an unstable government that has changed many times in the short history of the nation's independence. The political parties are not so much distinguished by their policies or ideology but rather by the personality of their leaders. Many of the members of parliament are not affiliated to any party, so fragile coalitions are prevalent with parties seeking to win the votes of the independents to survive. Even parliament members may change parties at a moment's notice.

Economy

About 85% of the population are subsistence farmers and do very well. There is no problem with starvation as with some other countries. The remaining minorities are involved in government services, mining, plantations and service industries. There is virtually no manufacturing industry, so almost all manufactured goods and many basic foodstuffs are imported. PNG’s natural resources are gold, silver, nickel, copper, oil, forestry and fishing. Coffee, cocoa and copra, too, play a large part in the nation's economy. The relative size of the population and the natural wealth means that PNG has tremendous economic potential and in terms of the Pacific's island states is a giant.

Languages

It is now believed that there are over 800 distinct languages in PNG. The search for a language to overcome this mutual incomprehension has brought about the trade language Melanesian Pidgin. Primarily derived from English, Pidgin also uses words from many languages. It came into being during the German New Guinea days and began in and around Rabaul. It is simplistic and can be frustrating at times because of its limited vocabulary. English is the official language of PNG used in government, business and schools, but used little outside the cities.

Currency

The unit of currency is the Kina (key-nah), which is divided into 100 Toea (pronounced toyah). Both are the names of traditional shell money.

Time

PNG is 10 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, the same as Australian Eastern Standard Time, or 15 hours ahead of US Eastern Standard Time. This changes to 9 and 14 hours respectively when clocks are adjusted for daylight saving time (PNG does not change). Because the country lies just 5o south of the equator, there is very little year-round variance in the length of the days. The sun rises around 6:00 AM and sets around 6:30 PM. However, the people of PNG are not the avid clock-watchers found in Western cultures. “PNG time” is notoriously flexible--the people are event-orientated, not time-orientated. Although it frustrates Westerners, it is a fact of life here.