Vanatinai Island (also called Tagula and Sudest, for the names of the extreme capes of the island) is a

volcanic island Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

in the southeast 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 ...

within

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 ...

. The

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

-fringed island is approximately southeast 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 ...

and south of Misima. With an area of , it is the largest island of the archipelago. Tagula town, the main settlement, is located on the northwest coast. The population was 3,628 . The principal export is

copra Copra (from ; ; ; ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted ...

Geography

The island is long, stretching from Cape Tagula to Cape Sudest, and up to wide. A wooded mountain range runs through the length of the island, with the summit, Mount Riu () near the center. The most important peaks of the range are, from west to east: *Mount Madau () *Mount Gangulua () *Mount Riu (formerly called Mount Rattlesnake) () *Mount Imau () *Mount Arumbi ()

Climate

Most of Tagula island has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(Af) but the main settlement of Tagula, located in the northernmost and driest part of the island, has a

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 subtype that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ' ...

(Am).

History

The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Vanatinai Island was 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 ...

on 14 July 1606. The island was the site of a gold rush that began in 1888 and peaked in 1889. Gold was found in nearly all of the island's water courses.Pacific Islands Yearbook, 13th ed., Sydney, New York 1972 Rambuso Village is located on the north coast of the eastern part of the island, where Rambuso Creek flows into the Pacific Ocean. Entry through the reef to the harbour is deep and easy to see during daylight. Many visiting yachts and local trading boats use this protected anchorage. In 2010 the villagers and several visiting yachties rebuilt the wharf and causeway. The villagers new slogan is "Rambuso Creek the gateway to Sudest". The new wharf helped Rambuso develop and now the busy town has some 500 citizens.

Transportation

The island has an airport, code (IATA-Code „TGL“) for public transport, near Tagula village.

Biodiversity

Several species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the island, including the aptly named Tagula white-eye, Tagula honeyeater and

Tagula butcherbird The Tagula butcherbird (''Cracticus louisiadensis'') is a species of bird in the family Artamidae. It is endemic to Tagula Island in Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island coun ...

. Among frogs, '' Cophixalus tagulensis'' is only known from Tagula.

References

Islands of Milne Bay Province Louisiade Archipelago Gold mines in Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-island-stub