West New Britain Province
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West New Britain is a province of
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 ...
on the islands of
New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...
. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km2 with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is with
East New Britain East New Britain is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital ...
. There are seven major tribes, the Nakanai, Bakovi, Kove, Unea, Maleu, Arowe, speaking about 25 languages. People from West New Britain are referred to as "Kombes" in Papua New Guinea, in metonymic reference to the significant Kove (or Kombe) people. The Kove people were reported on by the anthropologist
Ann Chowning Martha Ann Chowning (18 April 1929 – 25 September 2016) was an American anthropologist, ethnographer, archaeologist and linguist known for her work on the peoples, languages, cultures and histories of Oceania. Biography Chowning was born on 18 ...
in ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'' magazine during the 1960s. Within Papua New Guinea they are noted for their practice of superincision of the
penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...
—circumcision is generally though inaccurately referred to among Papua New Guineans as "the Kombe cut"—but was formerly practiced in other northern coastal regions of New Guinea island and the New Guinea Islands. The predominant religious affiliation is
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, though there is a sizeable
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
presence at the extreme western tip of the province and Bishop James Ayong, the retired Anglican prelate of Papua New Guinea, is originally from West New Britain. West New Britain produces
palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...
for export with large
oil palm ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms, called oil palms, containing two species, native to Africa and the Americas. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. Description Mature palms are single-stemmed, and can gro ...
plantations on the north coast of the province especially in the Kimbe region. There are logging activities in the interior and on the south coast. The Walindi dive resort near Kimbe is a tourist destination for visitors to Papua New Guinea.


Districts and LLGs

There are two
districts 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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
in the province. Each district has one or more Local Level Government (LLG) areas. For
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
purposes, the LLG areas are subdivided into wards and those into census units.


Provincial leaders

The province was governed by a decentralised provincial administration, headed by a Premier, from 1978 to 1995. Following reforms taking effect that year, the national government reassumed some powers, and the role of Premier was replaced by a position of Governor, to be held by the winner of the province-wide seat in the
National Parliament of Papua New Guinea The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the Unicameralism, unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was grante ...
.


Premiers (1978–1995)


Governors (1995–present)


Members of the National Parliament

The province and each district is represented by a Member of the
National Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. There is one provincial
electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district ...
and each district is an open electorate.


References

{{Authority control * Islands Region (Papua New Guinea) Provinces of Papua New Guinea