Digul

Digul
River
NASA Landsat image (enhanced) of the Digul Estuary, looking roughly east. Dolak can be seen towards the south.
Country	Indonesia
Region	Papua
Mouth
- location	Arafura Sea
- coordinates	7°7′S 138°42′E / 7.117°S 138.700°E / -7.117; 138.700Coordinates: 7°7′S 138°42′E / 7.117°S 138.700°E / -7.117; 138.700
Length	525 km (326 mi)

The Digul (Dutch: Digoel) is a major river in southern Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea.

The swamplands upstream were known by the name "Boven-Digoel" (Above the Digul, in Dutch) and hosted a penal colony at Tanahmerah (Red Earth) in the early 20th century, when Indonesia was a colony of Holland. As a result of the abortive 1926 revolt by the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), the Dutch exiled 823 of the most troublesome revolutionaries here.^[1]

Rising on the southern slopes of Maoke Mountains, the Digul flows first south and then west to empty into the Arafura Sea. For much of its length it travels across a low region of extensive swamps and creates a delta near Dolak (Frederik Hendrik) Island. The river has a length of 525 kilometres (326 mi) and is navigable as far as Tanahmerah.

1. ↑ Brackman, A.C., Indonesian Communism: A History, 1963, Praeger Press