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West New Britain is "Volcano Central" with massive (active) volcanoes as with these above along the coast in the Hoskins area. The smallest of the three peaks is Mt Pago which erupted violently in the early 2000's causing a large evacuation of the surrounding area. Volcanoes also extend along the Willuamez peninsula that juts out of the coast near Kimbe. Kimbe (below) is an important port for the export of Palm Oil |
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| Our trips into Kimbe included a long drive east to Bialla to explore the possibility of linking in an existing hydro electric station at Lake Hargy to the grid at Kimbe. The area is very active with thermal areas such as Walu (above) and a number of active volcanoes. We came across the locals (below) on the road. There are a number of rivers to cross some of which a coloured blue (locals call this one the Kerosine river) from the limestone country they flow through | |
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| The Lake Hargy power station is a well maintained and run facility which suffers from realising it's full potential from its isolation. It was built to service a timber mill, which never got built. This is in contrast to the Ru Creek No.1 Power station which is out of service with both generators broken down while the diesel powered staion in Kimbe continues on it's expensive and polluting way. In Kimbe we met with the Provincial Administrator Stephen Raphael | |
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| We travelled up to our site at Ru Creek No.2 through Mingai village. The photo below is taken at the possible weir site. Lulu continued with her community consultation while the kids at the Mingai school posed for their photo. | |
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As with Oro Province, Palm Oil dominates the local economy. When the palms get too high to harvest they poison them off and replant. The dead palm trunks look quite alien |
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One of the major companies has a thriving beef industry
with the cattle grazing between the oil palms. Walindi resort
is a little
way north of Kimbe. We stopped there for a beer. It would be a nice
place to have a holiday. It is quite famous for the diving in the
surrounding seas. |
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Another thermal area is located north of Talasea on the Willaumez Peninsula. The kids from the Talasea station came along for the ride and to act as our guides. The two separate thermal areas on both sides of the Garua harbour had the full range of hot springs, small geysers and mudpools. At present there is no development of any type based on them |
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The provincial government headquaters had all the provincial flags of PNG flying which made for a colourful display. The final shot is of me being "abandoned" at the end of my first trip at Hoskins airport while the others made their way through to Buka and Bougainville. I eventually made it back to Port Moresby later in the day after a few strings were pulled to get me onto an overbooked aircraft. |
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