Goodenough Bay

Goodenough Bay is a large bay on the northern coast of the Papuan Peninsula, in the southeast of the Papua New Guinean mainland. Located in Milne Bay Province, it spans roughly by , with a coastline running from the eastern tip of Cape Vogel to a prominent headland called Cape Frere. It forms part of the Solomon Sea, within the south Pacific Ocean. The northern coast along Cape Vogel is hilly, while the southern coast along the main Papuan peninsula is steeper and connects inland to the Owen Stanley Range. The waters of the bay are deep, with few areas ships can easily anchor, although coastal areas contain a few coral reefs.

The bay lies along an active fault line, and likely formed during the Pliocene were pushed apart from mainland New Guinea. The area remains tectonically active. The local communities living around the bay speak a variety of different and sometimes largely unrelated Austronesian languages. The first European to survey the area was John Moresby, who named the bay after James Graham Goodenough. An Anglican mission was established at Dogura in 1891. In the Second World War the bay saw conflict during the New Guinea campaign, particularly around the Battle of Milne Bay.

Geography

Goodenough Bay is one of a series of bays along the northern coast of the Papuan Peninsula, with the Huon Gulf, Oro Bay, and Collingwood Bay to its west and Milne Bay to its east. Goodenough Bay itself is about from east to west and from north to south.

The northern coast is a relatively low-lying stretch of land that forms part of Cape Vogel. The low and flat coastal hills on the western stretch of this coastline are around high. Towards the end of the cape, they approach . These hills are densely forested. The northeastern end of this peninsula and the northwest boundary of Goodenough Bay is the high Glen Islet. This islet lies on a coral reef extending about from the mainland which has a sandbank on its eastern side. The mainland closest to Glen Islet is known as Sibiribiri Point (9°43'S., 150°03'E.).

Rawdon Bay lies along the northern coast (9°47'S., 149°53'E.). Within it lie two small coral islets known as the Mosquito islets. The larger islet is named Baniara. The water in this bay and around the islands contains coral reefs. Less than east (9°46'S., 149°56'E.) of Rawdon Bay is Menapi Bay, which also contains a reef. There are no notable coral reefs elsewhere in the bay.

There are no large rivers on the northern coast. Near the head of the bay, the Ruaba River flows from the Gwoira Range. The head of the bay sees a marked change in coastal topography as Cape Vogel is replaced by the main Papuan peninsula. While mostly mountainous, alluvial plains have formed in some areas where rivers flowing down from the mountains enter the bay.

Much of the southern coast is a series of headlands separated by heavily sedimented smaller bays. The sediment inhibits coral settling in the bays, although some coral fringes the headlands. Smaller bays along the southern coast include Rebuda Bay, Dogura Bay, and Bartle Bay. Bartle Bay is about wide, and has inputs from two navigable rivers and a stream. It is deep at its head. Inland the southern coast has a series of small plateaus around high. Behind them lies the Owen Stanley Range, which include areas of limited forest cover and peaks reaching . This coastline is quite dry, and instead of forest much of the southern coast is instead covered in grasses.

Just east of Bartle Bay is Cape Frere, the eastern end of the bay (10°06'S., 150°10'E.). This cape is over high, with ravines leading down to the coast. This seafloor near Cape Frere is steep with no reef. In general, the bay is quite deep, reaching . The only suitable anchorages are in Rawdon Bay and Menapi Bay.

The bay's depth likely results from geologic activity that has created a number of deep ocean chasms in the region. The Owen-Stanley fault runs from the head of the bay along the southern coast, separating the Trobriand plate/ Solomon Sea plate which contains Cape Vogel and most of the bay from the main Indo-Australian plate on which lies the southern coast. This fault means the bay sometimes experiences earthquakes. Smaller faultlines occur elsewhere in the bay. Historical earthquakes are thought to have uplifted the southern coast. Goodenough Bay likely formed in the Pliocene became separated from the mainland. The channel between these islands and Goodenough Bay is Ward Hunt Strait

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