Morobe Province


Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810, and since the division of Southern Highlands Province in May 2012 it is the most populous province. It includes the Huon Peninsula, the Markham River, and delta, and coastal territories along the Huon Gulf. The province has nine administrative districts. At least 101 languages are spoken, including Kâte and Yabem language. English and Tok Pisin are common languages in the urban areas, and in some areas pidgin forms of German are mixed with the native language.

History

Nomenclature

The Morobe Province takes its name from former German administration center of Morobe southeast of the Lae. Under German administration, Morobe was named Adolfhafen for the German Deutsch Neuguinea-Kompagnie's Adolf von Hansemann and German word hafen and was an outpost of the Deutsch Neuguinea-Kompagnie era. It was located close to the border of British New Guinea.

Brief history

While there have been various attempts to examine the history of Morobe Province, the works of Ian Willis and Phillip Holzknecht can be summarised below;
  • 1793 Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux sailed up tail of New Guinea into the Gulf he named Huon de Kermadec
  • 1856 Italian Catholic priests arrived at Mandok Island, Siassi, before disease forced him to leave.
  • 1874 John Moresby on HMS Basilisk sails along Huon Gulf and names Parsee Point, the Markham, Rawlinson Ranges, and explores around the Markham's mouth.
  • 1884 Otto Finsch on `Samoa' explores New Guinea under Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie and selects Finschhafen as the best site for company settlement. The same year, Northeast New Guinea and its Offshore islands were claimed by Germany, while Britain claimed Southeast New Guinea.
  • 1886 Georg von Schlientz, a New Guinea company representative arrives in Finschhafen to set up settlement on Madang Island. He undertakes exploration along the coast and names areas with prominent German names. He states that one-day the Markham mouth will become an important port for trade. Martin Dreger explores the Huon Gulf on `Samoa' and travels upstream on the Markham and saw villagers, who were willing to trade for iron. During the same year Lutheran missionary Johann Flierl arrives in Simbang.
  • 1887 The Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie abandons Finschhafen because of malaria and decides to move to . The Lutheran mission stayed on in Finschhafen and expanded its influence along coastal villages.
  • 1900 Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie land acquisition in Lae.
  • 1907 Lae Wampar raid villages at Lae and Labu.
  • 1909 Stephen Lehner and Dr. Neuhauss visit Lae Wampar to establish peace among the warring tribes.
  • 1910–11 Ten Lutheran mission stations, including Lae and Gabmatzung among the Lae Wampar were established.
  • 1913 Burgberg gazetted as a patrol post, Morobe was still a German government outpost.
  • 1914 Australian Military Occupation of former German New Guinea as a result of the outbreak of World War I.
  • 1921–1925 Civil Administration restored in New Guinea as an Australian Mandated Territory for the League of Nations.
  • 1926 Gold is discovered in Eddie Creek, near Wau. There was a gold rush. Salamaua becomes a port of call for all activities relating to Wau gold fields.
  • 1937 Lae becomes the capital of New Guinea, replacing Rabaul.
  • 1942 Japanese bomb Lae, Salamaua and Bulolo on 21 January. Japanese land in Lae on 8 March.
  • 1942–1945 War arrives in New Guinea and there is a military administration in the Territory. The administration was referred to by ANGAU which stands for Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit.
  • 1943 Following the losses in Buna and Kokoda Trail, the Japanese fall back to Lae.
  • 1945–1950 Slow recovery of the territory.
  • 1950–1975 Period of rapid expansion in the territory.
  • 1960s Lutheran church goes into business launching Lutheran Shipping and Namasu.
  • 1964 First House of Assembly Election
  • 1975 Political independence

    German New Guinea

The largest part of northeastern New Guinea in German New Guinea was called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, named in honour of Wilhelm II, the German Emperor and King of Prussia. From 1884 until 1918, the territory was a protectorate of the German Empire
The coastline of the northern and eastern portions of New Guinea had been charted by navigators in the early 17th century, and the visible mountain ranges named by British admiralty navigators later in the century. Most German surveying efforts had focused on coastal regions and river basins, where Germans had established plantations. The boundary between Papua and Kaiser Wilhelmsland had been established by a joint British-German expedition in 1909, the interior had not been mapped. Since then, Papuan gold prospectors had crossed into German territory which, from the German perspective, made the accuracy of the border essential.

1870–1880

The first European to spend any length of time in Morobe was Russian biologist Nicolai Miklouho-Maclay. He arrived at Astrolabe Bay, south of the present site of Madang, in 1871 and stayed for 15 months before leaving to regain his health,
1874 John Moresby on HMS Basilisk sails along Huon Gulf and names Parsee Point, the Markham, Rawlinson Ranges, and explores around the Markham mouth, and meet up with people along the coast; who according to him seem to have met white men before.
In the 1870s and 1880s German commercial firms began to site trading stations in New Guinea. Agents of J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn reached the Bismarck Archipelago from the Caroline Islands in 1872. In 1875 Hernsheim & Company moved to the Archipelago.

1880–1900

In 1884, the German New Guinea Company was founded in Berlin by Adolph von Hansemann, Dr Otto Finsch and a syndicate of German bankers for the purpose of colonizing and exploiting resources on Neu Guinea, where German interest grew after British Queensland's annexation of part of eastern New Guinea.
Von Hansemann's task was to select land for plantation development on the north-east coast of New Guinea and establish trading posts. Its influence soon grew to encompass the entire north-eastern part of New Guinea and some of the islands off the coast.
Most of the German settlers to Kaiser-Wilhelmsland were plantation owners, miners, and government functionaries, and the number of European settlers, including non-Germans, was never very high.
On 19 August 1884, Chancellor Bismarck ordered the establishment of a German protectorate in the New Britain Archipelago and north-eastern New Guinea.
In 1885 and 1887, Johann Flierl established missionary stations in Simbang and Timba Island. After malaria epidemics in 1889 and again in 1891 killed almost half of the European settlers on the coast in Finschhafen, many of the Europeans moved toward Friedrich Wilhelmshafen. Flierl established a Mission station at Sattelberg, in the highlands. In 1890 and 1891, he built the Sattelberg Mission Station there and constructed a road approximately between the station and the Finsch harbor, which cut the traveling time from three days to five hours.
In 1885, Lutheran and Catholic congregations sent clergy to establish missions, who experienced moderate, but very slow, success with the indigenous peoples. Missionaries and plantation owners alike were limited by tropical diseases, travel, and communication barriers.
German colonial rule in New Guinea lasted for a period of thirty years, For the first fifteen years the colony was administered under imperial charters by a private company, in the manner of the old British and Dutch East India Company. From 1899 to 1914, the Imperial Government administered German New Guinea through a governor, who was assisted after 1904 by a nominated Government Council.
When the Imperial Government took over the running of the colony in 1899, its overriding objective was rapid economic development, based on a German- controlled plantation economy.

1900–1914

In April 1911, Dr Wegener, director of the Meteorological Observatory in Apia, stated he was on his way to German New Guinea, to make preliminary arrangements for a series of journeys by balloon across the mainland, the purpose of which was to make aerial surveys.
In late 1913, the Imperial Colonial Office appointed Hermann Detzner to lead an expedition to survey the border between the British protectorate, called Papua and the German territory and to survey and map the interior. Detzner, an Austrian, was a military surveyor.
The expedition set off along the Langimar-Watut divide, and traveled by raft down the Watut River to its junction with the Markham River, and on to the Lutheran Mission station at Gabmadzung

1914–1918

On 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. As World War I spread to the Pacific, Australian troops invaded German New Guinea, taking the German barracks in Herbertshöhe and forcing the defending German colonial troops to capitulate on 21 September after their defeat at Bita Paka.
On 6 August 1914, residents of the Protectorate were notified by proclamation that a state of war existed between Germany, and England, France and Russia. During this time Detzner continued surveying and avoiding allied forces.
On 11 November 1918, Detzner was advised that the war had ended and surrendered himself at Finschafen complete with sword and sun helmet. He was interned at Sydney and returned to Germany.
Under German New Guinea, powerful wireless stations were constructed at strategic points in the Pacific including Yap, Nauru, Samoa, and at Bita Paka, in German New Guinea.
The German protectorate was overrun by British-Australian troops. In 1918, as part of the settlements ending World War I, Kaiser-Wilhemsland was administered by the Commonwealth of Australia, a British dominion.