Morobe & Madang Provinces
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© Lonely Planet Publications 124 lonelyplanet.com MOROBE & MADANG PROVINCES •• History 125 HISTORY Volcanic eruptions at Rabaul in 1937 Ancient axe heads that have been found sug- prompted a decision to move the capital of Morobe & Madang gest people have been living in this part of New Guinea to Lae, but WWII intervened PNG for about 40,000 years. Simbai settle- and instead Lae, Salamaua and Rabaul be- ments date back 15,000 years. Bilbil and Yabob came major Japanese bases. The Japanese also Provinces people in Madang Province are famous for took Madang. their pots, which they’ve been trading with In early 1943 the Japanese, reeling from Morobe peoples and Highlanders for eons. defeats at Milne Bay and the Kokoda Track, If you have just rolled down the pot-holed roads of the Highlands on an arse-spanking The first European to spend any length attempted to take Port Moresby by attacking PMV, Morobe and Madang, with their beaches and bays, will be as welcome as a shot of of time on the PNG mainland was Russian towards Wau, marching over the mountains quinine after a bout of malaria. biologist Nicolai Miklouho-Maclay. He ar- from Salamaua. The Battle of Wau was fought rived at Astrolabe Bay, south of the present hand-to-hand after the ammunition ran out, Geographically speaking they are similar – both rise from pristine beaches and bays of site of Madang, in 1871 and stayed for 15 with villagers watching in much the same way that foreign researchers (with an advanced Papua New Guinea’s northern coast into a series of thickly forested hills, imposing mountain months before leaving to regain his health, which was badly affected by malaria. He came knowledge of clan disputes) and voyeurs ranges and, ultimately, the Highlands. on two more visits. Maclay’s relations with watch Highlands battles today. In September 1943 Allied troops took But that is where their similarities end. Lae is the abandoned child of the 1920s and local people were remarkably good and his studies make fascinating reading. Salamaua, Nadzab and finally Lae. Many 1930s gold-rush era and she grew up hard. In the ‘40s she was invaded by the Japanese Arguably the most rapid change, how- Japanese escaped into the mountain wil- and bombed by the Allies. Today Lae is finding her feet as an important economic and ever, began when the German New Guinea derness of the Huon Peninsula and started industrial hub and has become the most well-connected city in PNG with road, sea and air Company established a settlement at on an incredible retreat that saw them fight Finschhafen in 1885. It was a disaster, with their way over the Finisterre Range towards links to just about everywhere else. WWII battlefields, war cemeteries, wrecked planes and MOROBE & MADANG malaria, boredom and alcohol all taking a Madang, and eventually all the way to Wewak. sunken ships all attract visitors and the Morobe Province’s Black Cat Track is slowly gaining Today, groups of Australian military-history heavy toll. The company moved north, first PROVINCES popularity with hardcore trekkers now that the Kokoda has become ‘overrun’. to Bogadjim on Astrolabe Bay, and then buffs occasionally walk the route over Shaggy on to Madang, before finally conceding de- Ridge, scene of some of the most desperate Madang, situated on a small peninsula jutting into a halcyonic harbour, is Lae’s younger, feat to the mosquitoes and decamping for fighting of the campaign. Lae, Wau, Bulolo prettier sister. Despite being heavily bombed in WWII, Madang has returned to her sunny, the relative comforts of New Britain. The and Salamaua were badly damaged during the PROVINCES PROVINCES carefree self. Once here, you’ll be shifting down the mental gears in no time. For the adventurer Lutheran Mission arrived during this time war and Salamaua was never rebuilt. Madang there is plenty of scope to grab a snorkel, slap on some sunscreen and banana-boat hop your and Finschhafen remains a Lutheran base. was demolished and completely rebuilt. MOROBE & MADANG MOROBE & MADANG Postwar, Lae became a major transport hub way along the coast. Madang’s northern coast, the Finschhafen area and the foreshore south The legendary prospector ‘Sharkeye’ Park is credited with discovering gold near Wau in for goods shipped to and from the Highlands. of Lae all offer opportunities to stay in locally run guesthouses and soak up some rays. 1921. By the mid-1920s the gold hunters were The road between Wau and Lae had been built flooding in, arriving at Salamaua and strug- during the war and work on the Highlands gling for eight days up the steep and slippery Hwy was made a priority so it could service HIGHLIGHTS Black Cat Track ( p137 ) to Wau, a mere 50km the fast-growing coffee and tea industries. The away. Malaria, the track itself and unhappy Highlands mineral boom of the 1980s and Soaking up the creature comforts under the tribesmen claimed many lives. ’90s, with its need for massive heavy-cargo bat-packed trees of Madang ( p140 ), the In 1926 a richer field was discovered at Edie shipments, resulted in Lae becoming the main ‘prettiest town in the Pacific’ Creek, high in the hills above Wau. To squeeze port and industrial centre of PNG. Watching leatherback turtles scramble ashore Madang Simbai the most out of these gold-rich streams the at Labu Tali Conservation Area ( p135 ) under miners turned to aircraft ( p312 ) and within a GEOGRAPHY & CLIMATE a full moon few years more air freight was being lifted in The Huon Peninsula is the hump in the Being one of the first to witness the beetle- PNG than the rest of the world put together. New Guinea ‘dragon’s back’, an area of steep bejewelled singsings of the isolated Simbai The goldfields continued to be productive ranges leading down to northern coastal ( p149 ) villagers high in Bismarck Range until after WWII. Today, local people still grasslands and swamps. The Finisterre, work the fields but it’s nothing more than a Sarawaget and Rawlinson Ranges form a rib Suiting up to dive the wrecks and carnage of Lae WWII or snorkelling over the psychedelic reefs Labu Tali cottage industry. along the Huon Peninsula, with the lower Conservation Area north of Madang ( p142 ) Lae was a tiny mission station before the slopes blanketed in one of the most tan- gold rush but soon became a thriving commu- gled and impenetrable rainforests in PNG. Calling into Lae to pay your respects at the War nity clustered, in true PNG fashion, around Further north, Madang Province rises from Cemetery ( p129 ) and to check out the critters at its central airstrip. It was from here that, in the coast into the Schrader and Bismarck the Rainforest Habitat ( p129 ) 1937, pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart took off Range and the highest peaks in the country; on one of the final legs of a round-the-world Mt Wilhelm (4509m) stands near the border POPULATION: 905,000 AREA : 62,470 SQ KM flight and disappeared without trace. with Simbu Province. 126 MOROBE & MADANG PROVINCES lonelyplanet.com lonelyplanet.com MOROBE PROVINCE 127 0 80 km Both provinces have river valleys that are MOROBE & MADANG PROVINCES 0 50 miles important cattle and sugar-cane farming areas; in Morobe it’s the valley astride the Watam 190km-long Markham River, while Madang has the Ramu Valley. There are 45 islands Sepik River Boroi Hansa Manam I off the coast of Madang Province, three of Ramu River Bay Base camp Laing I which are active volcanoes. Morobe also has Bogia a number of volcanic islands between the EAST SEPIK Huon Peninsula and New Britain. PROVINCE The climate in this part of PNG can be North Coast Hwy confusing. The Lae–Finschhafen area’s Ad e Magiya B I S M A R C K S E A Keram Guav l b Karkar I rainy period is from May to October and e r River Salemben t River R it has only a slight seasonal variation in a n g Bagabag I temperature. But while it can rain every e Malolo Cape Croisilles day for weeks in Lae, just a couple of Aronis Bargam S c MADANG hours down the coast by boat it is sunny h r PROVINCE a d most days. Madang is dry between June e r Alexishafen R a n g e Ramu River Utu Mission See Around Madang Aiome Gogol River Map (p146) and September. Long I Bau Madang D ENGA Lake a B Yabob m Sakar I CULTURE PROVINCE Simbai Wisdom p i Tolokiwa I i e Astrolabe r Even today, the Anga people from the s Bay Cape Rigny S Baiyer River Mt Herbert m t r a i highland areas of Morobe Province are re- (4267m) t MOROBE & MADANG a Usino Bogadjim r V i Umboi nowned throughout PNG as fierce warriors. c F i Saidor t i (Rooke) n i a Traditionally they lived a nomadic existence WESTERN k s Bandit PROVINCES Koropa t e z I HIGHLANDS r r interspersed with violent raids on lowland Brahmin e PROVINCE Bundi R Ramu R S a t Mt Wilhelm a n villages – or upon each other. Despite the Highlands Hwy n Dumpu r (4509m) g g Bonga Mt Hagen e Hwy e a bitter climate in their mountain homeland, Teptep Wasu i they wore only tiny grass skirts and cloaks Gusap t PROVINCES PROVINCES Kundiawa Goroka Watarais Sialum made of beaten bark, known as mal. Kabwum JK McCarthy, who made some of the first MOROBE & MADANG MOROBE & MADANG MOROBE S a t R a n g e contact with these people between the wars, SIMBU Hwy r a w a g e Henganofi Highlands Kainantu PROVINCE Bobongara described in his book Patrol Into Yesterday PROVINCE H u o n P e n i n s u l a Markham Boana the Angas’ first sight of an aircraft, when EASTERN R Pindiu SOUTHERN a w l i HIGHLANDS n s o n Maneba Wharf men crawled beneath the plane in search of HIGHLANDS Finschhafen Area PROVINCE R Butaweng River a n g e Gagidu Station its genitals, apparently unsure whether it was Nadzab Malasiga Buki Wharf & Airport male or female.