Kulumadau is a large, rural non-village (as per the official 1990 Woodlark Island census) on

Woodlark Island Woodlark Island, known to its inhabitants simply as Woodlark or Muyua, is the main island of the Woodlark Islands archipelago, located in Milne Bay Province and the Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea. Although no formal census has been conducted sinc ...

Milne Bay Province Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,345 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited. The province has a ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It is served by

Guasopa Airport Guasopa Airport , is an airport at Guasopa on Woodlark Island, in the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. History World War II U.S. forces captured Woodlark Island on 30 June 1943 as part of Operation Chronicle. The 60th US Naval Constructi ...

. Its population during the 1990 census was 242, though it has since grown extensively; its current population is reported to be about 2,500 people, but there are no official sources for this number, as the last official census was taken in 1990 (this is the case in many rural islands of

Milne Bay Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, south-eastern Papua New Guinea. More than long and over wide, Milne Bay is a sheltered deep-water harbor accessible via Ward Hunt Strait. It is surrounded by the heavily wooded Stirling Range to t ...

). There is a large primary school in Kulumadau (Kulumadau Primary School), where 200 students are taught (60 coming from outer islands). Students must travel to

Alotau Alotau is the capital of Milne Bay Province, in the south-east of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the northern shore of Milne Bay. The town is located within Alotau Urban LLG. Alotau is also the annual forum for Australian and Papua New Guinea ...

on the

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...

to attend secondary school. Kulumadau (along with

Guasopa Guasopa is a village on Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea. It is served by Guasopa Airport. Its population during the 1990 census was 170, though it has since grown extensively. Guasopa is the location of the Guasopa Health Cente ...

) was built in the post-colonial times, and as such, is not considered a traditional village of Woodlark, however, since its inception, Kulumadau has been the primary population center on Woodlark Island. Kulumadau is located near the head of Kwaiapan Bay, 14 km north of the village of Bonagai and 18 km south of the village of Dikoias. Modern gold exploration was initiated in 1962 with the

Bureau of Mineral Resources Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

undertaking surface

geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

, limited

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...

and

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

drilling during 1962 and 1963 at Kulumadau. Since 1990, Kulumadau has gained a medium-sized timber company (Milne Bay Logging) and a mining exploration camp (BHP).

References

Populated places in Milne Bay Province Woodlark Islands {{MilneBayProvince-geo-stub