Discover

'Goodenough Island' is in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of the mainland, in the Solomon Sea.[1]
It is one of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, is near the Trobriand Islands and should not be confused with Goodenough's Island.
The island was visited in 1873 by Captain John Moresby, who named it after Commodore James Graham Goodenough.
The island is roughly circular in shape, measuring 39 km by 26 km with an area of 687 square km and a shoreline of 116 km. From a coastal belt varying in width from 2 km to 10 km wide the island rises sharply to the volcanic summit of Mount Vineuo, 2,536 m high, making it one of the most precipetous islands in the world.[2] (The most precipitous is Heard Island rising from a base of 378 sq km to a height of 2745 m.)[3]

Contents

Villages

Protected Area

References

Villages

List of villages working clockwise around Goodenough Island starting at Vivigani airstrip on the northeast coastal plain, as shown in Google Earth.

★ Vivigani (near the air strip)

★ Bolubolu (the administrative centre)

★ Wailagi

★ Kilia

★ Lauwela

★ Auwale

★ Debenefue

★ Diodio

★ Tatala

★ Waibula

★ Wataluma Mission and Plantation

★ Ulaluya Mission
The total population is 12,676 (1980 prelim.)

Protected Area

The Oi Mada Wara Wildlife Management Area in the centre of the island is 22 840 ha. It provides a critical landscape function with a relatively high number of endemic, endangered and vulnerable species. The small black dorcopsis wallaby (Dorcopsis atrata), the only wallaby known to be endemic to a Pacific island, is endangered and needs careful management. Another species, the Agile Wallaby (Macropus agilis) was abundant but can not be found today.[4]

References

★ UN system-wide Earthwatch Web Site

★ Jenness M.A. and Rev. A. Ballantyne. (1920) ''The Northern D'Entrecasteaux'', Oxford University Press.