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Rabaul

From dKosopedia

Rabaul is a small town on the island of New Britain with one of the finest natural harbors and scariest threats from erupting volcanoes on the planet. With a population of 17,044 (in 1990), the town is located within an active caldera surrounded by volcanoes. The seas off Rabaul offer some of the best diving on the planet.

History

Imperial Germany re-located its capital of colonial New Guinea in Rabaul in 1910. At the end of the First World War, the German possession was given to Australia, which used Rabaul as the capital of the Australian Territory of New Guinea from 1920 to 1941. Volcanic eruptions nearly destroyed the town in 1937 and again in 1994. Heavily destroyed by Allied bombing during the Second World War, the town was rebuilt.

On January 23, 1942, invading Japanese military forces overwhelmed the Australian miltiary garrison defending the town and then established a major Japanese naval and air base for their projected invasion of Australia at Rabaul. The Japanese fortress included 5 airstrips, a float plane base, a submarine base, 15 hospitals and 200,000 troops. British Indian POWs were used to dig some 500 kilometers of of tunnels. When Australian forces took control of Rabaul after the surrender of Japan they took custody of 57,368 Japanese Army personnel, 31, 923 naval personnel and 19,861 civilian workers. They freed 5,589 Indian, 1,397 Chinese, 688 Malayan, 607 Indonesia and 28 European POWs.

July 5, 2002 Election Returns

Candidate Party Incumbent Votes Percent
Allan Marat People's Progress Party Challenger 6042 59.4%
John Rumet Kaputin Independent Incumbent 1751 17.2%
John Topeono Independent Challenger 1326 13%
Robin Henry Minding Independent Challenger 333 3.3%
Paulias Nelson Eddie National Alliance Party Challenger 214 2.1%
Kachialau Pondrilei Francis Independent Independent Challenger 180 1.8%
Papat Robin National Vision for Humanity Party Challenger 173 1.7%
Thomas Tobunbun Papua and Niugini Union Party Challenger 147 1.4%

References

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This page was last modified 18:12, 23 March 2007 by dKosopedia user BartFraden. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) Allamakee Democrat. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.


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