Morobe is a small coastal village located in

Morobe Bay Morobe Bay is a bay within Huon Gulf, on the coast of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. History The American and Australian armed forces used Morobe Bay, also known as "Morobe Harbour", as a safe anchorage and staging point as part of the Ne ...

, in the south of

Morobe Province Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands ...

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 ...

History

An administrative post for the protectorate of

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

, it was occupied by Australian troops of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in 1914 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. 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 opposing ...

, Morobe was occupied by the

Imperial Japanese The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

in 1942. On 3 April 1943 the

United States army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

liberated Morobe. The village and surrounding area became a staging point for American and Australian troops during the New Guinea campaign. Nearby Yanina village made headlines around the world after Thomas Eri, a sex cult leader who promised bumper banana crops for those who had sex in public in front of him, escaped from police with seven of his naked followers."PNG banana sex cult leader splits after police raid: report"
, ''Hindustan Times'', 15 Sept 2009. Accessed 19 November 2009.

Airport

Morobe town is serviced by Morobe Airport.

References

Populated places in Morobe Province {{MorobeProvince-geo-stub