Rabaul - History

The first inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, probably migrants from the Indonesian archipelago, arrived about 50,000 years ago. These migrants arrived in several waves, and the land that they encountered had a remarkable effect on cultural development. Because New Guinea's terrain is marked by imposing mountains and extremely rugged territory, different population groups developed in virtual isolation. 

Each group developed its own language and its own tribal culture, a development that gives Papua New Guinea one of the world's most diverse and fascinating cultural landscapes. The first contact with the island by Europeans occurred in the early 16th century, when the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses sighted the country and named it Ilhas dos Papuas, Land of the Fuzzy-Haired People. However, it wasn't until the mid-1800's that European missionaries and traders began to settle on the island, and even those few settlers limited their presence mostly to the accessible coastal areas. 

In 1906, British New Guinea became Papua, and administration of the region was taken over by newly independent Australia. With the outbreak of WWI, Australian troops promptly secured the German headquarters at Rabaul, subsequently taking control of German New Guinea. 

In 1920, the League of Nations officially handed it over to Australia as a mandated territory. During WWII the northern islands and most of the northern coast fell to the Japanese who advanced southward until stalled by Allied forces. By 1945 the mainland and Bougainville had been recaptured, but the Japanese were impregnable in New Ireland and especially Rabaul in New Britain, where they dug 500km of tunnels. They surrendered these strongholds at the end of the war. Post-war, the eastern half of New Guinea reverted to Australia and became the Territory of Papua & New Guinea. Indonesia took control of Dutch New Guinea in 1963 (incorporating it into the Indonesian state as Irian Jaya). PNG was granted self-government in 1973, and full independence was achieved in 1975.

Papua New Guinea's most immediate concern after independence was its relations with powerful neighbour Indonesia. After Indonesia's takeover of Irian Jaya, many West Papuans organised a guerrilla resistance movement - Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) - which fought Indonesian forces with limited success. Tensions decreased markedly after 1985, as the flow of refugees (estimated at over 10,000) between Irian Jaya and PNG slowed. There are still 7500 Irian Jayan refugees living in camps in Western Province - the largest expatriate group in the country.

However, a new trouble spot for PNG soon appeared on Bougainville Island, where the locals regarded themselves as racially and culturally distinct from mainlanders. Bougainvilleans were embittered by the environmental destruction caused by the giant Australian-owned Panguna copper mine and by the way revenue from the mine filled a third of the national coffers but did not find its way back to their island. They formed the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) and forced the mine to close in 1989. This act, coupled with rebel demands for secession, sparked a major military confrontation with PNG forces and a resulting slew of human rights abuses.

After much bloodshed - including the notorious St Valentine's Day Massacre of 1990 when gunship, supplied by Australia, were deployed in an offensive role by the PNG security forces - peace talks were tentatively staged. But in 1992, then Prime Minister Wingti launched another major offensive against the rebels, further exacerbating the situation. The conflict claimed the scalp of the next prime minister, Sir Julius Chan, in early 1997 when PNG military leaders refused to co-operate with a US$35 million covert operation that involved South African mercenaries re-taking the island by force. The mercenaries were sent home and Sir Julius resigned. Elections in mid-1997 saw Bill Skate take up the office.

The Bougainville war officially ended in April 1998 - during the course of the 10-year war around 40,000 Bougainville islanders became refugees, and up to 20,000 people were killed. The cease-fire is being monitored by a peace-keeping force, and talks in late July will determine what form Bougainville's independence will take. Rising optimism over the ceasefire was rapidly tempered by a corruption scandal fizzing up around Bill Skate, and a catastrophic drought, caused by El Niño and felt worst in the central highlands provinces. Around 500 deaths were attributed to resulting hunger and disease and more than 650,000 people were severely affected. As if that wasn't enough, in July 1998 three giant tsunamis hit PNG's north-west coast - up to 3000 people were killed as villages along the coast were completely flattened.