Faisi 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 the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. The island is a part of

Shortland Islands The Shortland Islands is an archipelago of Western Province, Solomon Islands, at . The island group lies in the extreme north-west of the country's territory, close to the south-east edge of Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. The largest isl ...

archipelago.

Geography

Faisi is located near

Shortland Island Shortland Island (once known as ''Alu'') is the largest island of the Shortland Islands archipelago, in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, at . The original name was a Melanesian word, while the current name was given to the island b ...

and lies 18 miles northeast of the

Treasury Islands Treasury Islands () are a small group of islands a few kilometres to the south of Bougainville and from the Shortland Islands. They form part of the Western Province of the country of Solomon Islands. The two largest islands in the Treasuries ...

. The island is of rectangular shape and measures 1.3 km long and 350 m wide, and does not rise much above sea level. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is some 26 metres.

History

Germany claimed Faisi Island and kept it within

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 , ...

but never developed the island. In 1899, along with the north of the Solomon Archipelago down as far as Isabel Island, Faisi was transferred to the

British Solomon Islands Protectorate The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

. On June 7, 1895, Nicholas Tindal purchased the island from the German New Guinea Company for 600 Reichsmark as a wedding gift to his wife, Minnie Thursa Louise McDonald, whom he married that year. The couple established a trade store on the island and developed a freehold plantation there (1899-1903). They also built a family home on the southern tip of the island, as well as a trade store and copra-drying facility. They had two children born on the island, and it is likely these were the first Europeans born in the Shortlands. Later, the family mortgaged their plantations to Burns Philp & Co. that further developed Faisi Island into a trading post and build quarters for plantation workers along the eastern coast. When Nicholas Tindal died on his journey to Sydney on January 4, 1901, the company paid off the family's debts and completely acquired Faisi Island for 1,000 pounds on December 31, 1906. In those years the island already possessed a mature and productive copra plantations and had an excellent harbor and anchorage area. The company also improved a dock.

World War II

The former Tindal family home and other buildings continued to be used as a trading store until the start of the Pacific War in early 1942. At the start of the war, the British government ordered all European inhabitants to be evacuated by boat from the Solomon Islands. Faisi Island was first island in the Solomons which was occupied by Japanese forces. Faisi became the headquarters for the Japanese 8th Fleet, and some five thousand soldiers were garrisoned there. The Allies considered invading in August 1943 but chose instead to bypass the Shortlands for Bougainville and the

, so the Japanese controlled the Shortland Islands until the war's end. After the war, the Shortland Islands were re-established as a leading copra producing area. Today, the Faisi Island is uninhabited.

References

{{authority control Islands of the Solomon Islands Western Province (Solomon Islands)