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Manus Island is part of
Manus Province Manus Province is the smallest province in Papua New Guinea in terms of both land area and population, with a land area of , but with more than of water, and the total population is 60,485 (2011 census). The provincial town of Manus is Lorengau. ...
in northern
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
and is the largest of the
Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-co ...
. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles which can be broadly described as lowland
tropical rain forest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...
. The highest point on Manus Island is Mt. Dremsel, above sea level at the centre of the south coast. Manus Island is
volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...
in origin and probably broke through the ocean's surface in the late
Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
, 8 to 10 million years ago. The substrate of the island is either directly volcanic or from uplifted
coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
.
Lorengau Lorengau is the major town in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. The town is located on the edge of Seeadler Harbour on Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, and in 2000 Lorengau was recorded to have a population of 5,829. History World War II ...
, the capital of Manus Province, is located on the island.
Momote Airport Momote Airport is an airport on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea. It also serves Manus Island, which is connected to Los Negros by a bridge. History Hayne Airfield Built by the Imperial Japanese at Momote during Wor ...
, the terminal for Manus Province, is located on nearby Los Negros Island. A bridge connects Los Negros Island to Manus Island and the provincial capital of Lorengau. In the 2000 census, the whole Manus Province had a population of 50,321. The Austronesian Manus languages are spoken on the island. Papua New Guinea allowed the government of Australia to run a controversial offshore immigration detention centre, the
Manus Regional Processing Centre The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum (previously a Royal Au ...
, which was situated on adjacent Los Negros Island from 2001 to 2017, to house asylum seekers arriving by boat found within Australia's defined territorial borders. Manus Island is home to the emerald green snail, whose shells were harvested to be sold as jewellery; this continues, albeit at a lesser scale, as due to the snail's status as a threatened species, its sale for this purpose is now illegal in many jurisdictions.


History

The first recorded sighting of Manus Island by Europeans was by Spanish explorer Álvaro de Saavedra on board the
carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade ...
''Florida'' on 15 August 1528, while trying to return to
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...
from the
Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
. Saavedra circled Manus Island, and landed possibly on Murai
islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...
to the south west. Murai was found to be inhabited and some natives came out in
canoes A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the ter ...
, attacking with bows and
arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers ...
s. Three of these men were captured by the Spaniards, and were returned by Saavedra to the same island, on his second attempt to return to North America the following year. Manus Island was charted as ''Urays la Grande'' or Big Urays, which is probably a projection of Murai to signify "big Murai". In
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
Manus Island was the site of an observation post manned by No. 4 Section, 'B' Platoon, 1st Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force, who also provided medical treatment to the inhabitants. Manus was first bombed by the Japanese on 25 January 1942, the radio mast being the main target. On 8 April 1942 an Imperial Japanese force consisting of the light cruiser ''Tatsuta'', destroyer ''Mutsuki'' and a troop transport ship ''Mishima Maru'' entered
Lorengau Lorengau is the major town in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. The town is located on the edge of Seeadler Harbour on Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, and in 2000 Lorengau was recorded to have a population of 5,829. History World War II ...
harbour and several hundred Japanese soldiers of the 8th Special Base Force swarmed ashore onto the Australian-mandated island. The vastly outnumbered Australians withdrew into the jungle. Later in 1942, Japan established a military base on Manus Island. This was attacked by United States forces in the
Admiralty Islands campaign The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division took the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from ai ...
of February – March 1944. An Allied naval base was established at
Seeadler Harbor Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II. In German, "Seeadler" means sea eagle, pointing to German colonial activity between 1884 a ...
, Manus Naval Base, on the island and it later supported the
British Pacific Fleet The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. The fleet was composed of empire naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944 from the remaining ships o ...
. The ammunition ship exploded in Seeadler Harbor on 10 November 1944 with a heavy loss of life of US Navy personnel. In 1950–51 the Australian government conducted the last trials against
Japanese war criminals The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Some w ...
on the island. One case heard was that of
Takuma Nishimura was a Japanese army general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II, active in the invasion and occupation of British Malaya. After the Japanese surrender, he was tried and convicted in British Singapore as a war criminal for his r ...
, who faced an Australian military court. He had already been tried by a British military court in relation to the
Sook Ching massacre Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particular ...
in
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
and sentenced to life imprisonment. While on a stopover in Hong Kong he was intercepted by Australian Military Police. Evidence was presented stating that Nishimura had ordered the shootings of wounded Australian and Indian soldiers at
Parit Sulong Parit Sulong is a small town in Batu Pahat District, Johor, Malaysia on the Simpang Kiri River, east of Muar. The historical Parit Sulong Bridge constructed during World War II is a main feature in that town. Parit Sulong sits approximately ...
and the disposal of bodies so that there was no trace of evidence. In this trial he was found guilty and was hanged on 11 June 1951. American
anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...
Margaret Mead Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s. She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...
lived on Manus Island before and after the war, and gave detailed accounts in ''Growing up in New Guinea'' and ''New Lives for Old''.


Detention centre

In addition to its resident population, asylum seekers have been located on Los Negros between 2001 and 2004 and since 2012.
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
set up the Manus Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island in 2001 as part of its
Pacific Solution Pacific Solution is the name given to the Government of Australia policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially imple ...
immigration policy. In August 2012, the Australian Government controversially announced it would resume offshore processing; in November 2012 the relocation of asylum-seekers to Manus Island resumed. On 26 April 2016, the
Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea The Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has been the highest court of Papua New Guinea since 16 September 1975, replacing the pre-Independence Supreme Court (corresponding to the post-Independence National Court) and the overseas appellate tribunal ...
ruled that the detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island was illegal, and Prime Minister
Peter O'Neill Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. From 2002 until the present he served as Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pan ...
announced that the centre would be closed. After a stand-off involving PNG military and police, all remaining men were removed to new accommodation at the East Lorengau Refugee Transit Centre, Hillside Haus and West Lorengau Haus by 23 November 2017. In late 2019, the remaining asylum seekers were moved to
Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...
, and upon request by the PNG government, the
Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...
terminated the contracts of the service providers for the detention centre and other facilities as of 30 November 2019.


Naval bases

On 20 September 2018, ''
The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' reported that Australia and Papua New Guinea were discussing providing port facilities to the
Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister o ...
and
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
on Manus Island. Australia and the United States would help expand
Lombrum Naval Base Lombrum Naval Base, also known as HMPNGS ''Tarangau'' and formerly PNG Defence Force Base Lombrum, is a naval military base operated by the Maritime Operations Element of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF). It is located on Manus Island i ...
, so there would be facilities for Australian naval vessels there. The newspaper reported that Australia was countering interest
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
had placed in expanding Papua New Guinea's port facilities at
Wewak Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city (seat) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak. ...
,
Kikori Kikori is a small town in the Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Kikori lies in the delta of the Kikori River at the head of the Gulf of Papua. This area is particularly biologically rich with a diversity of ecosystems and densely forested, wit ...
,
Vanimo Vanimo is the capital of Sandaun Province (West Sepik) in north-westernmost Papua New Guinea and of Vanimo-Green River District. It is located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. Religion Its Holy Cross Pro-Cathedral is the epi ...
and Manus Island. Manus Island is the most important of these four ports, as it is a deep-water port near important shipping lanes. The RAN operated a naval base on Manus Island from the 1950s until transferred to the
Papua New Guinea Defence Force The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into be ...
in 1974.


Interstellar meteor

In April 2022, the 2014 meteor called CNEOS 2014-01-08 was confirmed to have been the first known object from beyond the solar system to have struck Earth. Some debris had reached the surface off the coast of Manus Island and may be recoverable.


See also

*
Admiralty Islands languages The Admiralty Islands languages are a group of some thirty Oceanic languages spoken on the Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South ...
** Manus languages


Notes


References

*


External links


ManusIsland.com
{{authority control Islands of Papua New Guinea Volcanoes of Papua New Guinea Miocene volcanoes Manus Province