Political map of the Solomon Islands archipelago in 1989

New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province,

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

, and the 200th-largest island in the world.

Geography

New Georgia island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of the other larger islands in the province. The island measures approximately long by wide. New Georgia forms part of the southern boundary of the New Georgia Sound.

Kolombangara Kolombangara (sometimes spelled ''Kulambangara'') is an island in the New Georgia Islands group of the nation state of Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The name is from a local language, a rough translation of its meaning is ...

lies across the Kula Gulf to the west, Choiseul to the northeast, Vangunu is to the southeast, and

Rendova Rendova is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea. Geography Rendova Island is a roughly rectangularly-shaped island, located in the South Pacific in the New Georgia Islands. The l ...

to the southwest, across the

Blanche Channel Blanche Channel is a strait and waterway in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It lies between New Georgia Island and Vangunu island on the northeast, and Rendova Island and Tetepare Island on the southwest. The channel opens to ...

. New Georgia is a volcanic island, surrounded in some places by a

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

. The highest point is Mount Masse, with an elevation of . The climate is wet and tropical, and the island is subject to frequent cyclones. New Georgia is covered with dense vegetation, in the marshy areas mangroves are located.

Population

The population of the island was 19,312 in 1999. Most of the population resides on the south coast; however, the main settlement is the village of Munda, located in the west. On the southeastern coast is the village of Sege. The islanders speak several Melanesian languages. The ten languages spoken on the island are from the family of New Georgia languages, a subgroup of the Northwest Solomonic languages within the

Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

, a major group of the Austronesian family. The Kalikoqu is a tribe in the Roviana Lagoon on the southern side of New Georgia Island; the larger tribal polities are the chief districts of Saikile and Kalikoqu.

History

The central part of New Georgia is the cradle of Roviana culture. A large complex of megalithic shrines and other structures was developed in the 13th century AD. Later, between the 15th and 17th centuries Roviana people moved over to smaller barrier islands at New Georgia with a hub in Nusa Roviana. Through trade and

headhunting Headhunting is the practice of hunting a human and collecting the severed head after killing the victim, although sometimes more portable body parts (such as ear, nose or scalp) are taken instead as trophies. Headhunting was practiced in h ...

expeditions, Nusa Roviana turned into the regional centre of power and trade. In the late 19th century the rule of the last chief of head hunters, Ingova, was ended by a British

punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beh ...

. On March 15, 1893, New Georgia was declared part of the

British Solomon Islands Protectorate The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

. The

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

Mission in New Georgia was established by Rev. John Frances Goldie in 1902. He dominated the mission and gained the loyalty of Solomon Islander members of his church. The relationship with the colonial administrators of the British Solomon Island Protectorate were also fraught with difficulty, at this time due to Goldie’s effective control over the Western Solomon Islands. From 1927 to 1934 Dr Edward Sayers worked at the Methodist mission where he established a hospital at Munda and carried out fieldwork in the treatment of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

.Sayers , E. G. (1943) ''Malaria in the South Pacific with Special Reference to the Solomon Islands''. New Zealand Government Printing Office Since July 1978, the island has been part of the independent state of

World War II

The island was occupied by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

in the early stages of

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 ...

. During

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

New Georgia Campaign The New Georgia campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied strategy in the South Pacific to isolate t ...

opened with landings on New Georgia and nearby islands on 30 June 1943. New Georgia was secured by American forces on 23 August, after weeks of difficult and bloody jungle fighting, although fighting continued on some nearby islands until October 1943. Munda, the Japanese base on New Georgia Island, was the main objective of the assault on the island. This base was not overrun until 5 August 1943. The Japanese port at

Bairoko Harbor Bairoko Harbor is situated along the northwestern shore of the island of New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the 200th-largest island in the world. Geography ...

, north of Munda, was not taken until 25 August.

Donald Gilbert Kennedy Donald Gilbert Kennedy (March 1898 – 1976) was a teacher, then an administrator in the British colonial service in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. For his services as a Coastwatcher during the ...

was a

Coastwatcher The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II ...

stationed at Seghe (Segi) on New Georgia during the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, ...

during the Pacific War.

References

External links