Southern Highlands is a province in

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 ...

. Its provincial capital is the town of

Mendi Mendi, Papua New Guinea, is the provincial capital of the Southern Highlands Province. The Lai River flows by the town. It is served by Mendi Airport. The town falls under Mendi Urban LLG. Geography The town is located in the Mendi River V ...

. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2011 census, the total population of Southern Highlands (after the separation of

Hela Province Hela is a province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Tari. The province covers an area of 10,498 km², and there are 249,449 inhabitants (2011 census figures). Hela province officially came into being on 17 May 2012, comprising t ...

) is 515,511 spread across .

Ethnic groups

Before the split there were two major ethnic groups, the

Huli people The Huli are an indigenous Melanesian ethnic group who reside in Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. They speak mainly Huli and Tok Pisin; many also speak some of the surrounding languages, and some also speak English. They are one of the lar ...

and the Angal speakers. Today the majority of the population in Southern Highlands is made up of Angal or Angal Heneng speakers. They occupy the three provinces of Southern Highlands (Nipa, Mendi, Lai Valley, Imbongu (lower Mendi)), Hela (Magarima) and Enga (parts of Kandep).

Split to create Hela Province

In July 2009, Parliament passed legislation to create two new provinces by 2012. One of these was to be created by removing the districts of Tari-Pori, Komo-Magarima, and Koroba-Kopiago from the Southern Highlands Province to form the new

. Hela Province officially came into being on 17 May 2012.

Regions

After the split of Hela, the province is divided into roughly three distinct geographic regions: # The West: which includes the Southern Highlands districts of Nipa, Mendi, Lai Valley, Imbogu (lower Mendi), Hela District of Magarima, Kutubu and part of Kendep (Enga Province), and is the home of the speakers of dialects of the Anggal Heneng language. # The East: which includes the districts of Kagua, Ialibu, Pangia and Erave, and is the home of the speakers of the Imbongu, Kewa, and Wiru languages, and home to the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea,

Mount Giluwe Mount Giluwe is the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea at ( Mount Wilhelm being the highest), and the fifth highest peak on the island of New Guinea. It is located in the Southern Highlands province and is an old shield volcano with v ...

. # The Lowlands: which stretch across the southern part of the Southern Highlands province from the volcanic peaks of

Mount Bosavi Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, part of the Kikori River basin.Feld, pp.3–4 The crater is approximately 4 km wide ...

to include the oilfields of

Lake Kutubu Lake Kutubu is the second-largest lake in Papua New Guinea,Lake Kutubu
at Ramsar site after districts in the province. Each district has one or more Local Level Government (LLG) areas. For

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

purposes, the LLG areas are subdivided into wards and those into census units.

Provincial leaders

The province was governed by a decentralised provincial administration, headed by a Premier, from 1978 to 1995. Following reforms taking effect that year, the national government reassumed some powers, and the role of Premier was replaced by a position of Governor, to be held by the winner of the province-wide seat in the

National Parliament of Papua New Guinea The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was granted independence ...

Premiers (1978–1995)

Governors (1995–present)

Members of the National Parliament

The province and each district is represented by a Member of the

National Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

. There is one provincial

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...

and each district is an open electorate.

2006 state of emergency

On 1 August 2006, the government of Papua New Guinea declared a state of emergency in the country's Southern Highlands region. According to Prime Minister Sir

Michael Somare Sir Michael Thomas Somare (9 April 1936 – 26 February 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation" (), he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the lo ...

, troops were deployed to restore 'law, order and good governance' in the region, following accusations of corruption, theft and misuse of government buildings at the hands of the regional government. As a region rich in energy resources, the Southern Highlands was at the centre of plans to construct a gas pipeline to pump natural gas to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

in north Australia. The project would have resulted in much needed revenue for Papua New Guinea, and as it was believed that the instability in the region could jeopardise the project, the national government decided to intervene by declaring a state of emergency. The move was supported by Parliament, although some criticism was leveled at the government for restricting press access to the region while the state of emergency was in force. The companies involved subsequently opted for the current

PNG Gas Papua New Guinea has exported liquefied natural gas (LNG) since 2014. The LNG sector is important to PNG's economy with US$2.95 billion in exports in 2020, and accounting for 5.25% of the GDP in 2019. On a global scale, PNG is a minor player, with ...

project which has export facilities outside

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 ...

. This is operated by Esso Highlands, a subsidiary of

Exxon Mobil Corporation ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

, and is expected to begin production in 2014.

References

{{Authority control Provinces of Papua New Guinea Highlands Region