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australasia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population. |
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| Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville.
Buka was first occupied by humans in paleolithic times, some 30,000 years ago. The present inhabitants speak languages that in all likelihood stem from the eastward push of Austronesian languages of the so-called Lapita Culture complex, some 2,700 years ago.
Buka is a relatively flat island some 40 kilometers long in the north-south axis, and up to 10 kilometers wide in the west-east axis. It is separated from Bougainville by the Buka Passage, a narrow, deep and very fast flowing tidal channel about 200m wide. The east coast is the windward side for most of the year, and is charaterised by a coastal cliff that rises close to the ocean, leaving only a narrow and often rocky beach. A coral reef rings the entire island, it is narrow on the east coast, which is battered by oceanic winds and large waves; it spreads out into lagoons on the west coast.
Along the western coast there is a range of small mountains calld the Richard Parkinson Range, named after the German planter and explorer. The highest peak in this range is Mt. Bei, which is 458m high. The ranges begin at the back of Buka Town, actually the village of Ieta, and peter out near Carola Harbour. The few large rivers in the island run along the interior of this range, the largest one being Gagan River.
The rest of the island is a large raised limestone formation which rises from ten meters inland to seventy to one hundred meters along the eastern coast cliff. This cliff corresponds to the reef of an ancient lagoon.
The limestone morphology means that there is very little surface water available throughout most of the island. This poses a problem for villagers, especially during the dry season, when they must collect the water from 'kukubui' springs along the foot of the cliff.
The island is divided into five Autonomous Bougainville Government electorates: Haku, Peit (covering the West Coast and Solos), Halia (from Tohatsi to Hahalis), Hagogohe (from Salasa to Sing) and Tsitalato (from Lonahan to Buka Passage). Each of these electorates has its own local government, known as Councils of Elders.
The main town in the island and the present-day capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville is located at Buka Passage, which is marked in earlier maps as 'Chinatown.' The land this town occupies is formally known as Ieta. There has been considerable expansion of this settlement in recent years, and also in nearby Kubu and Hutjena, the locations of the Autonomous Bougainville Government Parliament and the national highschool servicing Buka, respectively.
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