Port Moresby

Abstract

Port Moresby, capital and administrative centre of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, is only about 524 miles form Cairns in North Queensland. Sprawled along the hills above the eastern and northern shores of an almost-landlocked harbour, it is the home of about 4,200 Europeans and 14,000 native people who live in villages on its outskirts. On arriving in Port Moresby in 1904, Sir Hubert (then Judge) Murray wrote that it "consisted of about a dozen huts which pride of ownership permitted the inhabitants to call homes, and five erections of timber and galvanized iron in which the Government departments functioned". During the 1939-1945 war, Port Moresby sustained over 100 air raids: in 1942 and early 1943 it was the main forward base in the South West Pacific for operations against the Japanese.