Doini Island (also called Blanchard Island) is an island on the southern side of East Channel,

Milne Bay Province Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,345 km2 of land and 252,990 km2 of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited. The province has ...

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 ...

Administration

The island belongs to Logea South Ward, Bwanabwana Rural Local Level Government Area LLG, Samarai-Murua

District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, which are in

History

Doini Island was first sighted by Europeans on 30 July 1606 by the Spanish expedition of

Luís Vaez de Torres Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. They sailed and landed in it coming from their nearby base in ''Puerto de San Francisco'' (as they had named Oba Bay in Sideia Island). Upon their approach, although fires had been seen on the island every night, the natives retreated by canoe to another island when the landing crew approached. The thatch houses in the village had interior walls and contained fishing nets, stone axes, and large pearl shells. In the diary kept by José de Prado y Tovar, an aristocratic adventurer who accompanied the expedition, we can read the following about Doini Island:.Hilder, Brett ''The voyage of Torres'', Brisbane, 1980, pp.31

The island is well cultivated with plenty of fruit trees, they drink water from a large, well-made cistern as they do not know how to sink wells; we found small dumb dogs that neither bark nor howl, and do not cry out even if beaten with sticks

The island was named ''San Facundo'' ( St. Facundus). Some natives arriving at the island by canoe were captured, and from them Prado obtained the names of native tribes before setting them at liberty again. The names were the Boniguis, the Hunis and the Canaiis. On the 31 July, a large party was assembled ashore for the formal act of possession, as Prado reports:

...and before setting out from this harbour I caused all the men of the ship and launch to collect together with their arms in their hands, and having set two sentinels in good posts and the men in the form of a squadron, I took possession of all the land in the following form; having taken off my hat I said, Be my witnesses noble and faithful vassals of the King our lord that I, Don Diego de Prado, his Captain and Commander, do take possession of all this land discovered and to be discovered in the name of the most invincible and Catholic Don Philip the Third our lord, king of the Spains and West and East Indies, and of his predecessors for ever and ever, amen. And they all responded three times in loud voice, heads uncovered, with Long live the King our lord, and I forthwith asked the notary of the ship for an attestation and a royal salvo was fired with the artillery and arequebuses, and in the evening there were illuminations and a
Salve Regina The "Salve Regina" ( , ; meaning "Hail Queen"), also known as the "Hail Holy Queen", is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. The Salve Regina ...
was sung, giving thanks to our Lord and to his blessed Mother for the favours received and praying him to grant us a good voyage and every good success in that expedition to his honour and glory, amen.

Geography

The island is part of the Doini group, itself a part of

Samarai Islands The Samarai Islands archipelago, part of the larger Louisiade Archipelago, is located southeast of mainland New Guinea island, within the nation of Papua New Guinea. Geography The archipelago consists of: 4 larger volcanic islands frequently ...

of the

Louisiade Archipelago The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread o ...

Economy

The island is privately owned and is exploited as a holiday resort. The island is served by an

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

that was built by the resort.

References

{{Islands of Papua New Guinea, state=collapsed Islands of Milne Bay Province Louisiade Archipelago Private islands of Oceania