Tabar Island is an island of the Tabar Group 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 ...

, located to the east of New Ireland. It is inhabited by the Tabar people.

Geography

Tabar Island is the main island of the Tabar Islands and forms part of the

New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province a ...

. It is located approximately 900 km north east of

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 about 24 km northeast of the province's main island New Ireland. The island is of volcanic origin and has an area of about 110 km² with a length of about 20 km and about 9 km wide. The highest altitude is approximately 400 m above sea level. Tabar Island is the largest and southernmost island in the archipelago. The population is mainly divided into a few villages along the coast and the island's interior is covered mostly by rainforest. The main town of ''Datava'' is located on the island's northern part at ''Koko Bay'' . The islands can only be reached by ship as they do not have an airport, the neighboring Tatau Island is on the other side of the barely distant canal that separates the islands. Tabar south

History

The island has probably been inhabited by melanesians since about 1500 BC. It was charted by Dutch captains

Jacob Le Maire Jacob Le Maire (c. 1585 – 22 December 1616) was a Dutch mariner who circumnavigated the earth in 1615 and 1616. The strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados was named the Le Maire Strait in his honour, though not without controver ...

and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten in June 1616 and then named "Gardner Islands". They were later visited by

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New ...

who then dubbed the area to the "Visser Islands". The area came under German sovereignty in 1885 as part of

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 , ...

. The area was managed initially by the German New Guinea Company. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the area ended up under Australian control, and Australia later became officially mandated for the entire Bismarck Archipelago by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. From 1942 to 1945, the area was occupied by Japan, but returned to the Australian government mandate until Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975. Carl Emil Pettersson, a Swedish sailor who was shipwrecked and landed on the island in 1904, became its king (nicknamed "Strong Charly") after his marriage to the daughter of a local chief after he died.

References

Islands of Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-geo-stub