Port Moresby, (9°30′ S 147°12′ E), population 193,242 (1990), is the capital of Papua New Guinea. The city is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea.

The area on which the city was founded was first sighted by a European in 1873 by Captain John Moresby. It was named in honour of his father Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby.

History

Before Colonisation

The Motu people traded their pots for sago, other food and canoe logs and returned to Port Moresby with the north westerly, which blows from December to June. They also inter-married with the Gulf people and created strong family and trade links.

The Hiri expeditions were large-scale. As many as 20 multi-hulled canoes or lakatoi, crewed by some 600 men, carried about 20,000 clay pots on each journey. To the Motuans, the Hiri was not only an economic enterprise but they also confirmed their identity as a tribe because of the long and dangerous voyages.

Colonisation

Port Moresby was thus an important trade centre by the time when the first European report which identifies the area of the site later to become Port Moresby was made by the Englishman, Captain John Moresby, of HMS Basilisk. Moresby had just ventured through the Coral Sea at the eastern end of New Guinea and upon encountering three previously-unknown islands landed there. At 10 o’clock in the morning of the 20th February, 1873, claimed the land for Britain and proudly named it after his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby. He called the inner reach “Fairfax Harbour” and the other Port Moresby.

Actual settlement of the site did not occur until a decade later in 1883 and the particular claim of the land to British sovereignty was not at the time ratified. It was only later in 1884 that the southern part of New Guinea island was annexed to the Crown and the British Empire.

From then until 1941 Port Moresby grew slowly. The main growth was on the peninsula, where port facilities and other services were gradually improved. Electricity was introduced in 1925 and piped water supply was provided in 1941.