The Boluminski Highway is the main land transportation route on the island of New Ireland in

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 runs from the provincial capital of

Kavieng Kavieng is the capital of the Papua New Guinean province of New Ireland and the largest town on the island of the same name. The town is located at Balgai Bay, on the northern tip of the island. As of 2009, it had a population of 17,248. Kavi ...

for 193 km down the east coast of the island to Namatanai and beyond. The whole highway from Kavieng to Namatanai will be sealed by the end of 2018. Originally named ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Chaussee'' during the German protectorate, it was renamed in 1921 into ''East Coast Road''. After Papua New Guinea gained independence (1975) the Highway was renamed again, this time after Franz Boluminski who was the German District Officer from 1910 until his death in 1913. He built a large section of the highway by forcing individual villages along the coast to construct and maintain a section. If a section of the road fell into disrepair the village responsible would be punished by having to carry his

sulky A sulky is a lightweight cart with two wheels and a seat for the driver, generally pulled by horses or dogs. With horses, a sulky is used for harness racing. The term is also used for an arch-mounted cart on wheels or crawler tracks, used i ...

with him in it over the substandard section, and then his horse was reharnessed and he continued. The quality of the highway was not rivalled on the mainland until the 1950s.

References

New Ireland Province Road transport in Papua New Guinea {{NewIrelandProvince-geo-stub