Arawa, Bougainville

Arawa
The city of Arawa, and the port of Kieta, from space
Country	Papua New Guinea
Province	Bougainville
District	Central Bougainville
LLG	Arawa Rural LLG
Established	1884
Population  (2000)
• Total	36,443
• Rank	3rd
Languages
• Main languages	English, Tok Pisin
• Traditional language	Naasioi
Time zone	UTC+10 (AEST)
• Mean max temp	32 °C (90 °F)
• Mean min temp	23 °C (73 °F)
• Annual rainfall	3,037 mm (119.6 in)

Arawa was the capital and largest town in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. It was largely destroyed during the Bougainville Civil War, resulting in the relocation of the capital to Buka, though there are plans to rebuild Arawa and make it the capital again. The land where Arawa is now situated was previously a large expatriate plantation.

History

When Bougainville Copper Ltd needed a civic headquarters for dealing with the local and national government instrumentalities, Arawa Plantation was an obvious candidate. It was in close proximity to Kieta, the historic district headquarters whose geographical location made expansion difficult. It was also close to new commercial port facilities north of Arawa, in addition to the small longstanding port near Kieta, which allowed rural agricultural products to be loaded onto cargo ships. The extremely busy airport was south of Kieta, immediately adjacent to the sea.

The townsite was quickly developed through the 1970s and 1980s with residential neighbourhoods, commercial enterprises, large public schools in addition to long-established Roman Catholic schools in Kieta, a public library, hotels and restaurants and entertainment facilities such as a film theatre. Villagers throughout Bougainville and Buka had long been accustomed to seeing them at church stations, while residents from elsewhere greatly desired them; videos were common and frequently shown by Lutheran, Anglican and Baptist churches in the area in an attempt to attract converts. These denominations did not previously operate on Bougainville and Buka, which prior to the Panguna mine had largely been Roman Catholic and Methodist-cum-United Church.