The Gazelle Peninsula is a large

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

in northeastern

East New Britain East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely des ...

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 ...

located on the island of

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

within the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

, situated in the southwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The

Rabaul caldera The Rabaul caldera, or Rabaul Volcano, is a large volcano on the tip of the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, and derives its name from the town of Rabaul inside the caldera. The caldera has many sub-vents, Tavurvur being t ...

is located on the northern tip of the peninsula. Upon the Gazelle Peninsula are the Baining Mountains, of which the highest point is Mount Sinewit at . The Gazelle Peninsula houses Vulcan Crater and Mount Tavurvur, both of which conducted volcanic activity in the 20th and 21st centuries and have provided extremely fertile soils. The body of the Gazelle Peninsula is about . The southern isthmus upon which the Gazelle Peninsula is connected to the main body of

is reduced to about . The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, (2015). Gazelle peninsula. Retrieved April 23, 2019 from https://www.britannica.com/place/Gazelle-Peninsula

History

The peninsula was named by Georg Gustav Freiherr von Schleinitz after his ship, .

1884-1909

1884: German forces seized territories of what is known (as of April 22, 2019) as

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

and

. 1899: Until this point the

German New Guinea Company The German New Guinea Company (german: Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie) was a German Chartered Company which exploited insular territory in and near present Papua New Guinea. History In the 1870s and 1880s German commercial firms began to site tr ...

controlled these territories, then control was relinquished to the Imperial Government. 1909: Administrative headquarters of the Imperial Government in

were relocated to

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

. Macban, R.P. (1970). Geology of the gazelle peninsula, tpng. Record (1970/063), 8. Retrieved April 22, 2019 from https://d28rz98at9flks.cloudfront.net/12476/Rec1970_063.pdf

1914-1937

1914: Australian forces seized and controlled

. 1921:

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

was mandated

by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. 1937:

Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...

and

Tavurvur Tavurvur is an active stratovolcano near Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, in Papua New Guinea. It is a sub-vent of the Rabaul caldera and lies on the eastern rim of the larger feature. An eruption of the volcano largely destroyed the nearby ...

erupted, resulting in the destruction of

1941-1966

1941: Suspension of

's mandated

was absolved when

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

seized control of

until 1945. 1946: Trusteeship of

was awarded to

by the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

. 1966:

was divided into

West New Britain West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km² with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is w ...

and

remained as the headquarters of

Kokopo Kokopo is the capital of East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. It is administered under Kokopo-Vunamami Urban LLG. The capital was moved from Rabaul in 1994 when the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted. As a result, the population of ...

became the capital of

, and

Lassul Bay Lassul Bay is a bay of East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, opening into the Bismarck Sea. It is located in the north-western part of New Britain, to the west of Ataliklikun Bay on the Gazelle Peninsula The Gazelle Peninsula is a lar ...

became a significant point of interest in the administration of

Culture

The indigenous people of the Gazelle Peninsula are mostly concentrated within the

, particularly the town of

. Ethnically the people are typically of

Melanesian Melanesian is the adjectival form of Melanesia. It may refer to: * Melanesians * Melanesian mythology * Melanesian languages In linguistics, Melanesian is an obsolete term referring to the Austronesian languages of Melanesia: that is, the Oceani ...

descent and are referred to as Tolai by title of government. A second and less common indigenous people referred to as Baining, are semi-nomadic and tend to live in the Baining Mountains. They are distinct from the Tolai's

ethnicity. The Tolai are regarded as being the most successful people of

; defined by wealth, sophistication, adaptation to modern culture, and instinct for trade. In Tolai society, currency is used in similar fashion to coin via the medium known as tambu, a shell. Tambu can be bound together as coils to form alternative values and may be used to purchase goods in the Gazelle Peninsula. Marriage for Tolai is typically handled in economic fashion between two groups known as moieties and the son of one family is responsible for paying the bride-price in tambu to the family of the daughter. Marriage of two people within the same moiety is not allowed and the bride-price is generally determined by family status and wealth of the daughter.

Administrative divisions

Administratively, the peninsula falls under

Gazelle District Gazelle District is one of four administrative districts that make up the province of East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. The headquarters of Gazelle district is located in Kerevat town, located approximately 35 km from Kokopo, the pro ...

East New Britain Province East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...

. The district comprises the following

local-level governments Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

. * Central Gazelle Rural * Inland Baining Rural * Lassul Baining Rural * Livuan-Reimber Rural * Vunadidir-Toma Rural

References

{{Coord, 4.6, S, 152, E, display=title Peninsulas of Papua New Guinea East New Britain Province