The Boluminski Highway is the main land transportation route on the island of New Ireland in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It runs from the provincial capital of

Kavieng Kavieng is the capital of the Papua New Guinean province of New Ireland and the largest town on the island of the same name. The town is located at Balgai Bay, on the northern tip of the island. As of 2009, it had a population of 17,248. Kavi ...

for 193 km down the east coast of the island to Namatanai and beyond. The whole highway from Kavieng to Namatanai will be sealed by the end of 2018. Originally named ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Chaussee'' during the German protectorate, it was renamed in 1921 into ''East Coast Road''. After Papua New Guinea gained independence (1975) the Highway was renamed again, this time after Franz Boluminski who was the German District Officer from 1910 until his death in 1913. He built a large section of the highway by forcing individual villages along the coast to construct and maintain a section. If a section of the road fell into disrepair the village responsible would be punished by having to carry his

sulky A sulky is a lightweight cart used for harness racing. It has two wheels and a small seat for only a single driver. The modern racing sulky has shafts that extend in a continuous bow behind the driver's seat, with wire-spoked "bike" wheels ...

with him in it over the substandard section, and then his horse was reharnessed and he continued. This was the first proper road in what is now Papua New Guinea. The quality of the highway was not rivalled on the mainland until the 1950s.

References

Roads in Papua New Guinea New Ireland Province Road transport in Papua New Guinea {{NewIrelandProvince-geo-stub