Sideia Island is an island in 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 ...

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 is part of the following Wards: * Sauasauaga, on the southwest cape. (This Ward is mostly on Sariba) * Gotai, on the southeast area (with Populai Island) * Sekuku, on the central area (with Dinana Island) * Tegerauna, on the northeast area. * Sideia, on the northwest area. All Wards belong to 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

.LLG map

History

Sideia Island was sighted by Europeans when 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 ...

arrived on 18 July 1606. Their ship, ''San Pedro'' anchored at Oba Bay in the south west, that they then named ''Puerto San Francisco''. It was later renamed as ''Puerto Lerma'' after the 1st Duke of Lerma. Torres named the island St. Bonaventure. The mission in that island was established on April 22, 1932, by the Australian Province of the French Congregation Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC). By 1942, it was fully developed and became the base for other missions in the nearby islands. Many facilities were set up to provide education, medical assistance and ways of living to the native of the area.

Geography

Sideia is located East of the end of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

mainland. Its area is 101.3 km². The island is part of the Sideia 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

. It is located between

Sariba Island Saliba Island is a large island in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. Administration The island has 2 Wards : Sidudu in the northern part (with adjoining islands), and Sauasauaga on the southern part (which also includes adjoining islands an ...

and

Basilaki Island Basilaki Island (Moresby Island) is an island in the Louisiade Archipelago in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located at the eastern end of the New Guinea mainland. History First recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish e ...

. The island of Sideia is quite near

Alotau Alotau is the capital of Milne Bay Province, in the far south-east of Papua New Guinea, on the tip of the Papuan Peninsula. It is located on the northern shore of Milne Bay and the township is conveniently situated within the Alotau Urban LLG. Bei ...

and can be reached in less than three hours by motor boat.

Demographics

The population of 1890 is living in 30 villages across the island. The most important one, and where the dock is located, is Sideia. The other villages: Lamoasi, Mwalotakilili, Dumalawe, Paka, Gugui, Gadogadowa, Oba, Memeali, Kunubala, Gabutau, Makabweabweau, Nasauwai, Tabuara, Liliki, Kalu, Gotai, Wanahaua, Sekuku, Waiyau, Goteia, Kaula, Kubi, Boikalakalawa, Namoa, Dulaona, Balagatete, Tegerauna

Economy

The islanders, are farmers as opposed to eastern

islanders. they grow

Sago Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...

Taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

, and Yams for crops.

Transportation

There is a dock at Sideia.

Flora and fauna

The following mammals are on the island: *

Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), or , is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. Contrary to its vernacular name, the Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asi ...

Black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

Eastern common cuscus The eastern common cuscus (''Phalanger intercastellanus'') is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae found in eastern Papua New Guinea. Until recently, it was considered conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a charac ...

* Moncton's mosaic-tailed rat *

Black-tailed mosaic-tailed rat The black-tailed mosaic-tailed rat or black-tailed melomys (''Melomys rufescens'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found through much of New Guinea and also on some nearby islands, namely Salawati and Misool (Indonesia), and ...

* Eastern rat *

Giant white-tailed rat The giant white-tailed rat (''Uromys caudimaculatus'') is an Australian rodent native to tropical rainforest of north Queensland, with subspecies occurring in New Guinea and the Aru Islands. It is one of the largest rodents in Australia, reaching ...

New Guinea naked-backed fruit bat The New Guinea naked-backed fruit bat (''Dobsonia magna'' or ''Dobsonia moluccensis magna'') is a species of megabat native to Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian islands of Waigeo, Yapen, Batanta, and Misool Misool, formerly spelled Mysol (D ...

Long-tongued nectar bat The long-tongued nectar bat (''Macroglossus minimus''), also known as the northern blossom bat, honey nectar bat, least blossom-bat, dagger-toothed long-nosed fruit bat, and lesser long-tongued fruit bat, is a species of megabat. ''M. minimus'' is ...

Small flying fox The small flying fox, island flying fox or variable flying fox (''Pteropus hypomelanus'') is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines ...

Island tube-nosed fruit bat The island tube-nosed fruit bat (''Nyctimene major'') is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of De ...

* Geoffroy's rousett *

Common blossom bat The common blossom bat (''Syconycteris australis'') also known as the southern blossom bat or Queensland blossom bat, is a megabat in the family Pteropodidae. The common blossom bat feeds mostly on nectar and pollen rather than fruit. It is one o ...

The following fish are near the island:Sideia Research of fish
/ref> *

Acanthuridae Acanthuridae are a family of ray-finned fish which includes surgeonfishes, tangs, and unicornfishes. The family includes about 86 extant species of marine fish living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs. Many of the species are brigh ...

* Balistidae *

Belonidae Needlefish (Family (biology), family Belonidae) or long toms are piscivorous bony fish, fishes primarily associated with very shallow marine habitats or the surface of the open sea. Some genera include species found in marine, brackish, and fre ...

Carangidae The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish that includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, trevallies, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the ...

Holocentridae Holocentridae is a family of ray-finned fish, the only family of the suborder Holocentroidei and the only family of the order Holocentriformes. The members of the subfamily Holocentrinae are typically known as squirrelfish, while the members of ...

* Kyphosidae *

Lethrinidae Lethrinidae are a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes commonly known as emperors, emperor breams, and pigface breams. These fish are found in tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and ''Lethrinus atlanticus ...

Lutjanidae Lutjanidae or snappers are a family of perciform fishes, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries and, in some cases, fresh water (e.g., '' Lutjanus goldiei''). The family includes about 113 species. Most species are used for foo ...

Mugilidae The mullets or grey mullets are a family (Mugilidae) of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and some species in fresh water. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since R ...

Mullidae The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus ''Mullus ...

* Scaridae *

Serranidae Serranidae is a large family (biology), family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers (subfamily Epinephelinae). Although many species are small, ...

Siganidae Siganidae, the rabbitfishes, are a small family of ray-finned fishes in the order Perciformes. The only extant genus is '' Siganus'', the rabbitfish and spinefoot. However, a number of genera are known from fossils. The extant species are marine ...

Sphyraenidae A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwi ...

References

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