Merauke is a large town and the capital of the South Papua province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It is also the administrative centre of Merauke Regency in South Papua. It is considered the easternmost city in Indonesia. The town was originally called Ermasoe. It is next to the Maro River where the Port of Merauke is located. As of the 2010 census, Merauke had a population of 87,634 which at the 2020 Census had increased to 102,351.

History

Merauke was established in February 1902 as a military post by the Dutch, to prevent raids by the Marind-anim into neighbouring British New Guinea and the northwest

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their total land ...

(

Boigu Boigu Island (also known as Malu Kiyay or Malu Kiwai) is the most northerly inhabited island of Queensland and of Australia. It is part of the Top Western group of the Torres Strait Islands, which lie in the Torres Strait separating Cape York Pe ...

, Dauan and Saibai). The Dutch also tried to establish a rice colony there to no avail. The Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier in Merauke is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Merauke. No 12 Squadron aircrew Merauke Dec 1943

Merauke was the site of an Allied air and naval base,

Naval Base Merauke Naval Base Merauke was a United States Navy base built during World War II at city of Merauke in the South Papua province of Indonesia, then Papua New Guinea. The base was 2 miles from the mouth of the Merauke River. The US Navy built a PT boa ...

, 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and there was ground fighting between Australian and Japanese patrols in the area. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Merauke was used as a transit point between Java, and the

Boven-Digoel Boven-Digoel may refer to: * Boven Digoel Regency * Boven-Digoel concentration camp Boven-Digoel was a Dutch concentration camp for political prisoners operated in the Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1947. It was located in a remote area on the b ...

internment camp where many Indonesian Communist Party members were being sent. The expression " Sabang to Merauke" is used as shorthand for the territorial extent of Indonesia from west to east, for instance in the name of

Sabang Merauke Raya Air Charter Sabang Merauke Raya Air Charter (SMAC) was an airline based in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. It operated scheduled and charter domestic/regional passenger and cargo services, as well as pleasure and business flights. Its main base was Polonia In ...

. For instance, President

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto le ...

stated in 1968 that independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity from Sabang to Merauke are for the Indonesian people matters of principle".

Climate

Merauke has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of ...

( Köppen ''Aw'') with moderate to little rainfall from May to November and heavy rainfall from December to April.

Education

Merauke hosts the

Musamus Merauke University Musamus Merauke University (Indonesian: ''Universitas Musamus Merauke'', often abbreviated UNMUS) is a public university in Merauke, South Papua, Indonesia. The only public university (''Perguruan Tinggi Negeri'') in South Papua, it is located at t ...

, a state-run public university. It was founded as an academy in 2001 and officially became university in 2006.

Merauke as the name

Merauke is used for the name of

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

navy ship, USS Merauke (ID-2498).

References

Regency seats of South Papua {{Indonesia-geo-stub

History

Climate

Education

Merauke as the name

See also

References