Normanby Island is a volcanic, , L-shaped and mountainous island, as well as the southernmost island in the

D'Entrecasteaux Islands D'Entrecasteaux Islands () are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of , has a total land area of approximately and is separated from the Papua New G ...

group. It is part of

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 ...

, Papua New Guinea. The island has an irregular and elongated shape measuring 73km in length (northwest-southeast). Normanby Island is north-east of East Cape, on the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, separated by Goschen Strait, and is separated by the Dawson Strait (Dobu Passage) from

Fergusson Island Fergusson Island is the largest island of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, in Papua New Guinea. It has an area of , and mostly consists of mountainous regions, covered by rain forests. There are three large volcanoes on the island. Fergusson Island ...

. It is also separated from

Dobu Island Dobu Island is an island, part of D'Entrecasteaux Islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located south of Fergusson Island and north of Normanby Island, Papua New Guinea, Normanby Island. It is currently administered by Dobu Rural LLG. The people o ...

, a smaller

volcanic island Geologically, a volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term high island can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

, by a passage approximately 2.5 km wide. The island rises to in the Prevost Range in the southeast. The terrain includes low coastal plains and

swampland A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s, high mountains and steep coastal slopes. Sewa Bay provides shelter on the west coast and Awaiara (Sewataitai) Bay on the east coast. The largest settlement, and the capital of the

Esa'ala District Esa'ala District is a district of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea ...

, is Esa’ala at the island's northern end, which has a total of approximately 500 homes, residences, and structures. The island currently has 2 main airports that allow travel to and from the island, those being Esa'ala Airport (

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

) and Sehulea Airport ( AYSL). The Esa'ala Airport has one dirt

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

that is 1.36 km long (4,470 ft) and 60m (190ft) wide. The Sehulea Airport also has one unpaved runway, which is 830m (2,728ft) long and around 50m (170ft) wide. In 1873, the island was visited by British Captain

John Moresby Rear Admiral John Moresby (15 March 1830 – 12 July 1922) was a British naval officer who explored the coast of New Guinea and was the first European to discover the site of Port Moresby. Life and career Moresby was born in Allerford, Somerset ...

, commanding ''HMS Basilisk'', who named it after the

Marquess of Normanby Marquess of Normanby is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in 1694 in the Peerage of England in favour of John Sheffield, 3rd Earl of Mul ...

, George Augustus Constantine Phipps, a governor of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. Once known to produce gold, Normanby now exports

copra Copra (from ; ; ; ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted ...

and some timber. Recent discoveries of gold deposits during the 21st century have begun to be exploited. Normanby Island is also a

tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beau ...

, with many tourist trips and cruises going past the island to allow tourists to view the scenery, nature and wildlife on the island.

Economy

Normanby Island's income comes from three main sources, tourism, gold mining, and the copra/timber industry.

Gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

activities on the island have recently made a comeback after a Canadian mining company named "PNG Gold Corp" (PGK) discovered large amounts of gold while

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross section (geometry), cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary Cutting tool (machining), cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit i ...

at the Imwauna Project Site, which is located on the southern, mountainous side of the island in the middle of the Prevost Range.

Local Population

Normanby Island's population consists of small tribes and

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...

spread out across the entire island, with some of the tribes having histories going back thousands of years. Most of the individuals living on the island are

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

whose families have lived there for generations. There are at least 25 settlements on the island with more than 5 houses, with hundreds more small huts and farms scattered around the terrain. The island and its tribes are involved in the Kula exchange, an exchange of goods between islands in the MASSIM

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

that involves thousands of individuals who travel hundreds of miles by

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

to exchange Kula valuables. Villagers live in small, raised wood huts and in small close-knit communities. The inhabitants of the island speak in

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

as part of the Trans-New Guinea language family. The two main settlements with the largest number of inhabitants on the island are Esa'ala on the northern side of the island followed by Sehulea on the south-eastern side of the island. The majority of the structures in both settlements are wooden

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...

s made from nearby trees around the building. Most of the local population live along the

shoreline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

References

{{Islands of Papua New Guinea, state=collapsed D'Entrecasteaux Islands Islands of Milne Bay Province