The Digul River () is a major

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

in southern Papua province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, on the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

. It is the fourth longest river in New Guinea after

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

Mamberamo River The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,146 km) and third largest in Oceania by discharge (5,500 m3/s) volume after Fly River (7,500 m3/s) and Sepik (7,0 ...

and

Fly River The Fly River is the third longest river in the island of New Guinea, after the Sepik River and Mamberamo River, with a total length of and the largest by volume of discharge in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its ca ...

. With a total length of and has a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of .

History

The swamplands upstream were known by the name " Boven-Digoel" (Above the Digul, in Dutch) and hosted a penal colony at

Tanahmerah Tanah Merah (or Tanamerah, literally means ''Red Land'') is a town in South Papua province of Indonesia (not to be confused with Tanahmerah Bay) on the bank of Digul river, located some two hundred miles from Merauke within the interior of West ...

(Red Earth) in the early 20th century, when Indonesia was a colony of Holland. As a result of the abortive 1926 revolt by the

Communist Party of Indonesia The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in Indonesia during the mid-20th century. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its violent disbandment in 1965. ...

(PKI), the Dutch exiled 823 of the most troublesome revolutionaries here.Brackman, A.C., Indonesian Communism: A History, 1963, Praeger Press

Hydrology

Rising on the southern slopes of

Maoke Mountains The Maoke Mountains is a mountain range in the province of Central Papua and Highland Papua. It extends over 692 km and is composed of the Sudirman and Jayawijaya ranges. It is part of the larger New Guinea Highlands or Central Cordill ...

, the Digul flows first south and then west to empty into the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea i ...

. For much of its length it travels across a low region of extensive swamps and creates a

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also r ...

near Dolak (Yos Sudarso Island, formerly Frederik Hendrik) Island. The river has a length of and is navigable as far as

Geography

The river flows in the southern area of Papua with predominantly

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(designated as ''Am'' in the Köppen-Geiger climate classification). The annual average temperature in the area is 22 °C. The warmest month is April, when the average temperature is around 24 °C, and the coldest is June, at 20 °C. The average annual rainfall is 3072 mm. The wettest month is January, with an average of 464 mm rainfall, and the driest is July, with 28 mm rainfall.

References

{{Rivers in Indonesia Landforms of Western New Guinea Rivers of South Papua Rivers of Indonesia