The Independent State of Papua New Guinea is located just below (or
south) of the equator and to the north of Australia. The main island
of New Guinea shares a common border of approximately 800+ kilometres
with Indonesia (Irian Jaya). The other main islands are New Ireland,
New Britain and Bougainville. PNG has a population of over 5 million.
The total land area of PNG is approximately 450,000 sq kms.
The first European contact with PNG is reported as being around 1526
when a Portuguese explorer, Jorge de Meneses named the the country as
Ilhas dos Papuas or simply in English the land of the fuzzy haired people.
PNG was granted self government from Australia in 1973 and achieved
independence on the 16th day of September 1975
Estimates of the number of languages spoken in PNG varies from a conservative
700 to over 800. It is reported that this could be over one third of
all indigenous languages spoken in the world. To help everyone communicate
three main languages are used. English, Neo Melanesian or Tok Pidgin
and Motu, although Motu is only spoken on the southern most side of
the main island.
The climate is usually hot, humid and during the wet season - very
wet. The wet season usually exists between December and March. In some
parts of PNG the rainfall exceed 20 feet or 6 metres a year!
The capital of PNG is Port Moresby which is much drier than the rest
of the country. It usually only has a yearly rainfall of 1 metre or
approximately 39 inches of rain
The tallest mountain in PNG is called Mt Wilhelm which is located in
the Chimbu Province. It is approximately 4,500 metres or about 14,750
feet
The main exports for PNG are gold, copper ore, oil, logs, palm oil,
coffee, cocoa, fish, crayfish, prawns and bech de mere (sea slugs).
Papua New Guinea has several radio stations and one television station.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) run Shortwave and AM Services
with Radio Kalang broadcasting on FM. Other commercial FM radio stations
operate from Port Moresby.
