Madang

For other uses, see Madang (disambiguation).
Madang
Town

Coastwatchers Memorial Lighthouse, Kalibobo, Madang
Madang

Location in Papua New Guinea

Coordinates: 5°13′S 145°48′E / 5.217°S 145.800°E / -5.217; 145.800Coordinates: 5°13′S 145°48′E / 5.217°S 145.800°E / -5.217; 145.800
Country  Papua New Guinea
Province Madang Province
District Madang District
Established 1884
Elevation 3 m (10 ft)
Population (2013)
 • Total 29,339
Time zone AEST (UTC+10)

Madang (old German name: Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen) is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century.

Madang is the home of Divine Word University. The University accepts local and international students.

History

Russian biologist Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai was probably the first European to visit the area. In 1871 he stayed at Astrolabe Bay just south of present-day Madang for 15 months. He had a good relationship with the local communities before leaving, suffering from malaria.

In 1884 the German New Guinea Company arrived and tried to establish a base at various locations including at present day Madang but were continually beaten by malaria. They eventually moved to Rabaul.

The Japanese invaded and captured Madang without a fight during World War II in 1942. In September 1943, Australian forces launched a sustained campaign to retake the Finisterre Range and Madang. The town was captured on April 24, 1944. During the occupation and fighting the town was virtually destroyed and had to be rebuilt afterwards.

NGO Presence in Madang

Madang is viewed by many in the country as being safer and more pleasant for expatriates than the larger cities of Lae and Port Moresby. Because of this, some NGOs have chosen Madang as the location of their main offices in country.

CUSO (a Canadian NGO) and VSO (a British NGO) both have their headquarters in Madang.

Save the Children, WWF, and World Vision are also present with branch offices in Madang.

As a consequence Madang has a large number of expatriates working and living in the town than its small population would suggest.

Transport

Main article: Madang Airport

Climate

Climate data for Madang
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 33.2
(91.8)		 33.3
(91.9)		 33.3
(91.9)		 33.7
(92.7)		 32.2
(90)		 32.2
(90)		 31.5
(88.7)		 31.7
(89.1)		 33.4
(92.1)		 31.7
(89.1)		 32.5
(90.5)		 33.6
(92.5)		 33.7
(92.7)
Average high °C (°F) 30.8
(87.4)		 30.6
(87.1)		 30.6
(87.1)		 30.6
(87.1)		 30.7
(87.3)		 30.4
(86.7)		 30.2
(86.4)		 30.2
(86.4)		 30.5
(86.9)		 30.9
(87.6)		 31.2
(88.2)		 30.9
(87.6)		 30.6
(87.1)
Average low °C (°F) 23.9
(75)		 23.8
(74.8)		 23.9
(75)		 23.8
(74.8)		 23.9
(75)		 23.7
(74.7)		 23.4
(74.1)		 23.7
(74.7)		 23.6
(74.5)		 23.8
(74.8)		 23.9
(75)		 23.9
(75)		 23.8
(74.8)
Record low °C (°F) 21.0
(69.8)		 20.7
(69.3)		 20.8
(69.4)		 21.1
(70)		 20.1
(68.2)		 19.9
(67.8)		 20.0
(68)		 18.9
(66)		 20.8
(69.4)		 20.3
(68.5)		 20.0
(68)		 19.4
(66.9)		 18.9
(66)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 343.8
(13.535)		 292.0
(11.496)		 329.8
(12.984)		 389.4
(15.331)		 343.4
(13.52)		 186.4
(7.339)		 144.2
(5.677)		 93.8
(3.693)		 82.6
(3.252)		 239.2
(9.417)		 280.2
(11.031)		 382.0
(15.039)		 3,106.8
(122.315)
Average rainy days 23 21 23 23 21 18 15 12 11 15 19 23 224
Average relative humidity (%) 85 85 85 85 85 84 84 82 83 83 84 84 84
Mean monthly sunshine hours 160 140 144 162 193 195 198 210 227 210 185 160 2,184
Source #1: World Meteorological Organisation[1]
Source #2: Deutscher Wetterdienst (extremes, humidity and sun)[2][3][lower-alpha 1]

Products

Industry and farming are growing constantly in importance, more for export to distant lands. There are the widespread coconut palm plantations on the coast and cardamum is grown on Madang.

The Kilili plantation is the second largest of Kar Kar Island's twelve plantations with its more than a thousand coconut palms and cocoa trees. 70% of the cocoa and 50% of the copra produced in Madang province comes from Kar Kar.

In Madang province 173 regional languages are spoken, some of them being extremely different from the others.

Images

See also

References

  1. ↑ "World Weather Information Service — Madang". World Meteorological Organisation. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Klimatafel von Madang / Papua-Neuguinea" (PDF). Baseline climate means (1961-1990) from stations all over the world (in German). Deutscher Wetterdienst. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Station 92014 Madang W.O". Global station data 1961–1990—Sunshine Duration. Deutscher Wetterdienst. Retrieved 29 January 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madang.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Madang.

Notes

  1. ↑ Station ID for Madang W.O is 92014 Use this station ID to locate the sunshine duration

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 31, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.