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Provinces Of Vanuatu
Vanuatu has been divided into six provinces since 1994. The names in English of all provinces are derived from the initial letters of their constituent islands: Municipalities The provinces are in turn divided into municipalities headed by a council and a mayor elected from among the members of the council. In Tafea Province, for example, are the following municipalities (council areas): *North Erromango *South Erromango *North Tanna *West Tanna *Middle Bush Tanna *Whitesands *South West Tanna *South Tanna The islands of Aniwa, Futuna and Aneityum appear to consist of one municipality each. Island regions (historical) From 1985 to 1994 it was divided into eleven island regions: Districts (historical) During the Condominium era, specifically from 1968 to 1984 the group was divided into four administrative districts: Districts (1950) In the 1950s, districts appeared to denote the finest administrative level, finer than the current municipalities or council are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Efate
Efate (), also known as Île Vate (), is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanuatu's third largest island. Its geological past was heavily volcanic, meaning that a lava shelf surrounds much of the island. Most inhabitants of Efate live in Port Vila, the national capital. Its highest mountain is Mount McDonald with a height of . History Captain James Cook named it Sandwich Island "in honour of my noble patron, the Earl of Sandwich" on his 1774 voyage on . Coconut trees were planted on Efate in the mid-1800s. During World War II, Efate served an important role as a United States military base. On March 13, 2015, Port Vila, Vanuatu, Port Vila, the island's largest human settlement and the capital of Vanuatu, bore extensive damage from Cyclone Pam. In December 2024, 2024 Port Vila earthquake, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake reportedly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tafea Province
Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa. History Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territorial integrity of this administrative unit has been unchanged since the times of the Condominium, when it was called ''Southern District'', or ''Tanna'' after the main island. Only the capital moved from Lenakel to nearby Isangel, less than two kilometers more southeast. A secessionist movement began in the 1970s, and the Nation of Tanna was proclaimed on 24 March 1974. While the British were more open to allowing its holdings in Vanuatu independence, it was opposed by the French colonists and finally suppressed by the Anglo-French Condominium authorities on 29 June 1974. In 1980, there was another attempt to secede, declaring the Tafea Nation on 1 January 1980, its name coming from the initials of the five islands that were to be part of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vanuatu Provinces
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji. Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesians, Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies and named it . In the 1880s, France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom claimed parts of the archipelago, and in 1906, they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through an Anglo-French condominium (international law), condominium. An independence movem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Islands
The Torres Islands are an island chain in the Torba Province of the country of Vanuatu, the country’s northernmost island group. The chain of islands that make up this micro-archipelago straddles the broader cultural boundary between Island Melanesia and several Polynesian outliers located in the neighbouring Solomon Islands. To the island chain’s north is Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands, to its south is Espiritu Santo, and to its southeast are the Banks Islands. To the west, beneath the ocean surface, is the deep Torres Trench, which is the subduction zone between the Australian Plate and Pacific Plate. The seven islands in the Torres group, from north to south, are Hiw island, Hiw or ''Hiu'' (the largest), Metoma, Tegua, Ngwel (an uninhabited islet), Linua, Lo (island), Lo or ''Loh'', and Toga (island), Toga. The island chain stretches across . The highest point of the chain is only above sea level. These islands are less rugged than the other islands of Vanuatu th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banks Islands
The Banks Islands (in Bislama ''Bankis'') are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu. Together with the Torres Islands to their northwest, they make up the northernmost province of Torba Province, Torba. The island group lies about north of Maewo, and includes Gaua and Vanua Lava, two of the 13 largest islands in Vanuatu. In 2009, the islands had a population of 8,533. The island group's combined land area is . Geography The largest island is Gaua (formerly called Santa Maria), which has a rugged terrain, rising to Mount Gharat, an active volcano at the centre of the island, at . Gaua's freshwater Lake Letas, in its volcanic crater, is the largest lake in Vanuatu. A slightly smaller island in the group, Vanua Lava, is higher, at ; it too has an active volcano: Mount Suretamate (also spelled Süretimiat or Sere'ama, ). To the east of Vanua Lava are two islets in the groupo, Ravenga and Kwakea (also spelled Qakea). Sola, Vanuatu, Sola, the provincial capital, is on Vanua Lava. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sola, Vanuatu
Sola is the capital village of Torba Province in Vanuatu. It is on the island of Vanua Lava. Near the village of Sola is the volcano Mount Suretamate (also called Sürétimiat or Sere'ama). The Selva and Alket rivers pass north of the village. Fauna include saltwater crocodiles introduced by Steve Irwin, and an invasive species, fire ant. Name The name ''Sola'' comes from the Mota language, which was used as the primary language of the Melanesian Mission. Locally, the island is called ''Sol'' in Vurës, and ''Asol'' (with locative prefix ''a-'') in the immigrant Mwotlap language Mwotlap (pronounced ; formerly known as ''Motlav'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of R .... All of these terms come from a Proto-Torres-Banks form ''*sola''. Transportation The village is served by Vanua Lava Airport. Climate Refere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anatom
Aneityum (also known as Anatom or Keamu) is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, in the province of Tafea. Geography Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are disputed with New Caledonia, but considered by the people of Aneityum Island part of their custom ownership). Its southeastern cape Nétchan Néganneaing is the southernmost point of land in Vanuatu, more southerly than the southern satellite islet Inyeug. The latter, however, is surrounded by Intao Reef, that extends even further south, albeit submerged, thus being the southernmost feature of Vanuatu. The island is in size. It rises to an elevation of in Mount Inrerow Atamein. The larger of its two villages is Anelcauhat ( Anelghowhat), on the south side. Population Aneityum had a population of 915 in 2009. This population is believed to have been between 9,000 and 20,000 prior to the arrival of the Europeans, in 1793. However, introduced diseases and bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erromango
Erromango is the fourth largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. With a land area of , it is the largest island in Tafea Province, the southernmost of Vanuatu's six administrative regions. Name The endonym for Erromango in Erromangan is ''Nelocompne''. There are several accounts of how 'Erromango' came into common usage: firstly, an oral history from the Potnarvin area tells of how Captain James Cook was given a yam during his visit in August 1774, and was told in the (now-extinct) Sorung language ''armai n'go, armai n'go'' ('this food is good'), and mistakenly assumed this to be the name of the island. A second account is related by the naturalist Georg Forster, who accompanied Cook. He writes that he learned the name 'Irromanga' from a man named Fannòko, while visiting the neighbouring island of Tanna five days later. Cook himself does not name the island in his account of his visit, but writes later that he got the name, which he spells as 'Erromango', from Forster. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Futuna Island, Vanuatu
Futuna is an island in the Tafea province of Vanuatu. It is the easternmost island in the country. Geography It was formed by the uplift of an underwater volcano, which last erupted in the Pleistocene, at least 11,000 years ago. The volcano reaches a height of and gives the island an area of . The island is sometimes called West Futuna to distinguish it from Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna, and also can be known Erronan by its island neighbour, Tanna. Although it is part of the Melanesian country of Vanuatu it is considered to be a Polynesian outlier. To the immediate east of the island the seafloor occupies a deep and wide intra-arc sedimentary basin called the Futuna Trough that separates the island from Anwai and Tanna islands to the nor-east and Aneityum island to the south-east. Geology The top of the Pliocene part of the basaltic andesite volcano is overlain by a mid-Pleistocene cap of limestone called the Tanafu Plateau. This has sinkholes up to deep in a kar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aniwa Island
Aniwa is a small island in the southernmost province of Tafea, Vanuatu. As a coral island (a raised coral atoll), it rises a mere 42 m above sea level. In the northwest is ''Itcharo (Tiaro) lagoon'', which is open to the sea. The nearest large island is Tanna, about 24 km to the southwest. History In the 1840 missionaries arrived. In 1866 John Gibson Paton and his new wife Margaret Paton arrived on the island. He had been a missionary on Tanna but he was involved with encouraging the British to make a punitive mission there so he was persona non grata. They were now successful missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria and over the next fifteen years all of the 200 inhabitants identified as Christians. Population Like the nearby West Futuna, it is a Polynesian outlier, and thus its inhabitants originally came from Samoa, and the Wallis and Futuna group instead of the Melanesians of other nearby islands, although there has been much intermarriage with Tanna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanna (island)
Tanna (sometimes misspelled ''Tana'') is an island in southern Vanuatu. Tanna is the most populous island of Tafea Province, and the third most populous in the country (after Efate and Espiritu Santo). It is home to five indigenous languages, which also rank among the most widely spoken in the whole archipelago, ranging from 3,500 to 11,500 speakers. Tanna has been featured in numerous documentaries and TV shows around the world. This is partly due to Mount Yasur, an active volcano and a major tourist attraction. It is also of interest for its vibrant Melanesian culture, through dances and festivals. The island has attracted the attention of many anthropologists for its cargo cults. Name The name ''Tanna'', first cited by James Cook, is derived from the word ''tana'' in the Kwamera language, meaning 'earth'. Etymologically, ''Tanna'' goes back to Proto-Oceanic *''tanoq'', from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian * ''taneq'', with the same meaning. Geography Tanna is long and wide, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
