Daru is the capital of the Western Province of

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 a former Catholic bishopric. Daru town falls under the jurisdiction of

Daru Urban LLG Daru Urban LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Wards *83. Daru Town See also *Daru Airport *Daru Island Daru Island is an island in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the Torres S ...

. The township is entirely located on an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

that goes by the same name, which is located near the mouth of the

Fly River The Fly River is the third longest river in the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik River and Mamberamo River, with a total length of and the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its cat ...

on the western side of the Gulf, just north of

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

and

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Co ...

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 ...

. Daru had a recorded population of 15,142 as of the 2011 census.

Population

The language of the Daru people is Kiwai (South-West Coastal Kiwai), also spoken on neighbouring mainland villages (the name ''Kiwai'' comes from Kiwai Island some 60 km north-east in the

delta). However, the Kiwai settlement of Daru is fairly recent. The original inhabitants, the Hiamo, were Western-Central Torres Strait Islanders originally from

Yama Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. ...

in the

. With the Kiwai colonisations, the main group of Hiamo people moved to Southern Torres Strait and settled the (Inner)

Muralag group The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

Religion

Its St. Louis de Montfort Co-Cathedralhttp://www.gcatholic.org/churches/oceania/2929.htm GCatholic, with Google satellite map is the 'second see' (and former 'full' cathedral) of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Daru-Kiunga The Roman Catholic Diocese of Daru-Kiunga is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port Moresby. It was erected Prefecture Apostolic in 1959 and elevated to a diocese in 1966. The authors of the diocesan coat of arms are Slo ...

(renamed in 1987, originally

Apostolic Prefecture of Daru The Roman Catholic Diocese of Daru-Kiunga is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port Moresby. It was erected Prefecture Apostolic in 1959 and elevated to a diocese in 1966. The authors of the diocesan coat of arms are Slo ...

since 1957, promoted diocese in 1966).

Transport

It is served by

Daru Airport Daru Airport is an airport serving Daru, the capital of the Western Province in Papua New Guinea. The airfield was constructed before or during World War II. During the war it was used as a refuelling stop by Allied fighter aircraft. The Aust ...

, a small airstrip.

Climate

Daru has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

( Köppen ''Am'') with heavy rainfall most of the year and low rainfall from July to October.

Notes and references

{{Authority control Populated places in the Western Province (Papua New Guinea) Populated places established in 1884 1884 establishments in Oceania