Yule Island is a small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in Central Province,

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 located 160 km NW from

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

, on the south coast of Papua New Guinea.

History

Yule Island was probably named after

Charles Bampfield Yule Captain Charles Bampfield Yule, R.N. (1806 – 1 November 1878 at Anderton, Cornwall, United Kingdom) was an explorer and author of the Admiralty ''Australia Directory.'' The third son of Commander John Yule RN who served with Nelson at Trafa ...

, a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer who surveyed the area from 1842–1845.Quanchi, ''Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands'', page 251 It was one of the first areas in Central Province to have contact with Europeans. The

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; la, Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis; french: Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Servant of God Jules Chevalier (182 ...

began a mission in 1885. The mission was successfully led from 1900 to 1945 by Bishop

Henry Verius Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

. With the European missionaries came

catechist Catechesis (; from Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the ...

s from the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, some of which married into the local population. Today, many inhabitants of Yule Island have distinct European and Filipino features. The visit of Australian poet

James McAuley James Phillip McAuley (12 October 1917 – 15 October 1976) was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, Australian literature, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism. He was involved in the Ern Malley poetry hoax. Life ...

to the mission at Yule Island in 1949 made a profound spiritual impression on him and contributed to his conversion to Catholicism.

Fauna

Yule Island is surrounded by

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. Co ...

s.Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority Several

spider Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to this island, including: * The

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family (biology), family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all sp ...

species '' Salticus perogaster'' and ''

Plexippus brachypus In Greek mythology, Plexippus or Plexippos (Ancient Greek: Πλήξιππος means "striking") is a name that refers to: * Plexippus, a Pleuronian prince as the son of King Thestius of Pleuron and Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea. He was the br ...

'' * '' Heteropoda cyanognatha'' and ''

Pandercetes longipes ''Pandercetes'' is a genus of huntsman spiders that was first described by Ludwig Carl Christian Koch in his 1875 treatise on Australian spiders. They are mainly distributed in tropical Asia and Australia, and are known for their cryptic colora ...

'' (

Sparassidae Huntsman spiders, members of the family Sparassidae (formerly Heteropodidae), are known by this name because of their speed and mode of hunting. They are also called giant crab spiders because of their size and appearance. Larger species sometim ...

) * ''

Misumena arrogans ''Misumena'' is a genus of crab spiders sometimes referred to as flower crab spiders. They are similar in appearance to several other genera in the family Thomisidae, such as '' Misumenoides'' and '' Mecaphesa''. '' Misumena vatia'', the golden ...

'' and ''

Stephanopis yulensis ''Stephanopis'' is a genus of crab spiders first described by Octavius Pickard-Cambridge in 1869. It was erected for five then newly described species, including ''S. altifrons'', from Australia. ''Stephanopis'' was characterized by the high cep ...

'' (

Thomisidae The Thomisidae are a family of spiders, including about 170 genera and over 2,100 species. The common name crab spider is often linked to species in this family, but is also applied loosely to many other families of spiders. Many members of thi ...

) The

Early Pliocene Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

Echinodermata An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea li ...

fauna is rich and diverse, with 19 species known to occur in the

Kairuku Formation ''Kairuku'' is an extinct genus of penguin. It contains three species, ''K. grebneffi'', ''K. waitaki'' and ''K. waewaeroa''. This taxon is known from bones from 27 MYA (late Oligocene), from the Kokoamu Greensand Formation of New Zealand. It ...

. Nearly half of these species are also represented in northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

stocks, with the northern

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

only 600 km away.

Notable people

Susan Karike Susan Karike Huhume (–11 April 2017) was a Papua New Guinean housewife, who, as a schoolgirl, designed the colours of her country's national flag. She married Nanny Huhume and they had four children and twelve grandchildren. She died in Apri ...

- designer of the flag of Papua New Guinea *

Louis-André Navarre Louis-André Navarre (3 February 1836 - 16 January 1912) was a French Catholic priest active in the Pacific. A member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, he served as Vicar Apostolic of New Guinea from 1889 to 1908. He was also the Archbisho ...

- Missionary of the Sacred Heart and Archbishop, worked on the island and, following his death and burial in Townsville, was exhumed and reburied on the island

References

* Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority
Central Province
* (2007)

version 8.0. ''American Museum of Natural History''. *

History

Fauna

Notable people

References

Further reading