Ulawa Island is an island in

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 ...

. It is located near

Malaita Island Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

and belongs to Makira Ulawa Province. The island has an area of . A hilly island, its highest point is above sea level. Average temperatures are around 27 °C year-round, and the island receives an annual average rainfall of some . A dialect of the Sa'a language is spoken on Ulawa Island.

History

First recorded sighting by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña in May 1568. More precisely the sighting and also landing in Ulawa was due to a local voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the brigantine ''Santiago'', commanded by

Alférez In medieval Iberia, an ''alférez'' (, ) or ''alferes'' (, ) was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic ('' al-fāris''), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinise ...

Hernando Enríquez and having

Hernán Gallego Hernán is a Spanish masculine given name, originating from Germanic Hernan in the Visigoth culture in Spain. It is the Latinized version of the compound name ''Fard-nanth'', which seems to mean "gentle traveler" or "spiritual traveler". The House ...

as pilot. They charted it as ''La Treguada'' and reported that the name given to it by the natives was ''Uraba''.Brand, Donald D. The Pacific Basin ''A History of its Geographical Explorations The American Geographical Society'', New York, 1967, p.133.

Transportation

The island is served by Ulawa Airport, with flights on

Solomon Airlines Solomon Airlines is the national airline of Solomon Islands, based in Honiara. History Solomon Airlines was established in 1962 as a charter airline by Laurie Crowley. Crowley had a charter operation in Papua New Guinea with occasional charte ...

. Its major port is in the Su'u Moli Harbour. With passenger and cargo boats making trips to the island once every week.

References

External links

Tolaha ni Qaoolana Mala Ulawa (1907)
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Ulawa, digitized by Richard Mammana and Charles Wohlers Islands of the Solomon Islands {{Solomons-geo-stub