The Belait River ( ms, Sungai Belait) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Belait District Belait District (; Jawi: دأيره بلأيت), or simply Belait (), is the largest as well as the westernmost district in Brunei. It has an area of and the population of 69,062 as of 2016. The administrative town is Kuala Belait, located at ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

. It is the longest of the four main rivers in the country.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

from 1941 onwards, the whole of Brunei was under Japanese occupation until 1945. On 26 May 1979, Borneo's only

floating drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

arrived in Belait River. After being towed from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

by a Japanese tug for 50 days, the 1943 Australian built drydock, formerly named AD 1001, was acquired by the Kuala Belait Shipyard.

Sites

Kuala Belait Kuala Belait (KB; Jawi: ) is the administrative town of Belait District, Brunei. The population of the town proper was 4,259 in 2016. Kuala Belait is officially a municipal area (), as well as a village under the mukim of the same name. The t ...

is one of the largest human settlements in the district in which the river passes through, while on the west bank lies the Kampong Sungai Teraban and Kampong Rasau. Going upstream will lead to

Mukim Kuala Balai Mukim Kuala Balai is a mukim in Belait District, Brunei. The population was 31 in 2016. Geography The mukim borders Mukim Seria to the north, Mukim Labi to the east and south, the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the west and Mukim Kuala Bela ...

. Some of Brunei's historical sites are located along the river banks, which included the Menara Cendera Kenangan, a

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

in celebration of His Majesty's 50th birthday.

Kuala Belait port The Kuala Belait Port ( ms, Pelabuhan Kuala Belait), also known as Kuala Belait Wharf, is a port operated by both the Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) and Maritime and Port Authority Brunei Darussalam (MPABD). The port can only accommodate low-dr ...

is one of the three existing ports in Brunei and it's operated by Brunei Shell. A smaller shallow commercial jetty and a marine shipyard lies south of the main port in Kampong Sungai Duhon.

References

{{Reflist Rivers of Brunei

History

Sites

See also

References