Bougainville Island

Bougainville Island, easternmost island of Papua New Guinea, in the Solomon Sea, southwestern Pacific. With Buka Island and several island groups, it forms the autonomous region of Bougainville. Geographically, Bougainville is the largest of the Solomon Islands, located near the northern end of that chain. Bougainville is 75 miles (120 km) long and 40–60 miles (65–95 km) wide. The Emperor Range, with its highest peaks at Balbi (9,000 feet [2,743 metres]) and Bagana, both active volcanoes, occupies the northern half of the island, and the Crown Prince Range occupies the southern half. Coral reefs fringe the shore.

The main island and the passage between it and Choiseul Island (southeast) were visited in 1768 by the French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, for whom both were named. Placed under German administration in 1898, Bougainville was occupied by Australian forces in 1914 and included in an Australian mandate in 1920. The Japanese occupied the island early in 1942; although U.S. troops had essentially overtaken it by March 1944, remnants of the Japanese garrison remained until the end of the war. The United States used Torokina on the west coast as an airbase from which to bomb the Japanese headquarters at Rabaul, New Britain. After the war Bougainville was returned to Australian administration as part of the UN Trust Territory of New Guinea, and when Australia granted independence to Papua New Guinea in 1975, the island became part of that new country. With Buka and the Kilinailau, Tauu, Nukumanu, Nuguria, and Nissan groups, Bougainville formed the North Solomons province of Papua New Guinea; in 1997 it was renamed Bougainville province.

In the late 1980s secessionist sentiments surfaced on Bougainville, fanned by islanders’ dissatisfaction with their share of the revenues from a copper-mining operation at Panguna on Bougainville. An insurrection, begun in 1988, succeeded in closing the mine the following year. Rebels controlled the island until 1991, when federal troops landed and regained control. The conflict continued, however, and by the late 1990s as many as 15,000 people had been killed. In 2001 secessionists and the government reached a peace agreement that called for Bougainville and nearby islands to form an autonomous region. A constitution was approved in 2004, and elections were held the following year. In June 2005 the new government, headquartered at Buka, was sworn in.

Major towns on Bougainville include Arawa and Kieta, the latter supporting most of the commercial enterprise of the area. Copra, together with some cocoa and timber, is exported from Kieta. Copper deposits at Panguna were the basis for one of the world’s largest open-pit mines; production began in 1972 and by the early 1980s accounted for more than half of Papua New Guinea’s total export earnings. Although the Bougainville government voted in 2005 to reopen the Panguna mine, the matter was not expected to be resolved for several years. Area autonomous region, 3,600 square miles (9,300 square km). Pop. (2000) autonomous region, 175,160.