HomeTimeline
37 entries
A timeline of Papua New Guinea
The whole sequence on one page, from first settlement to the present. Entries in red are the turning points. Linked entries have an article behind them.
- c. 50,000 BP
First settlement of New Guinea
People reach Sahul, the landmass then joining New Guinea to Australia, in one of the earliest maritime migrations known. Published dates range widely and continue to be revised.
- c. 7,000 BP
Agriculture at Kuk Swamp
Drainage ditches and planting mounds in the Wahgi Valley record one of the few independent inventions of agriculture anywhere in the world. Kuk is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
- c. 3,300 BP
Lapita pottery in the Bismarcks
Distinctive Lapita ware appears in the Bismarck Archipelago, marking the expansion of seafaring peoples through the Pacific.
- 1526
Jorge de Meneses sights the island
The Portuguese governor-designate of the Moluccas is blown onto the north-west coast and applies a name from which "Papua" descends.
- 1545
"Nueva Guinea"
Spanish navigator Inigo Ortiz de Retes names the island New Guinea, for a resemblance he saw to the Guinea coast of Africa.
- 1606
Torres sails the strait
Luis Vaz de Torres passes between New Guinea and Australia, establishing that New Guinea is an island — a finding that then sat unused in Spanish archives for 150 years.
- 1700
Dampier names New Britain
The English navigator William Dampier charts and names New Britain, separating it from the mainland.
- 1873
Port Moresby named
Captain John Moresby of HMS Basilisk enters the harbour and names it after his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby.
- 1884
The colonial partition
Germany annexes the north-east as Kaiser-Wilhelmsland; Britain declares a protectorate over the south-east. The island is divided by powers that had barely visited it.
- 1888
British New Guinea annexed
The southern protectorate becomes a Crown colony.
- 1906
Papua passes to Australia
Under the Papua Act 1905 (Cth), British New Guinea becomes the Australian Territory of Papua, administered from Port Moresby.
- 1914
Australia occupies German New Guinea
Weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, Australian forces take Rabaul and the German administration surrenders.
- 1921
The League of Nations mandate
Australia begins administering the former German territory under a Class C mandate — a separate territory, under separate law, from Papua to the south.
- 1926
Gold at Edie Creek
A rush to the Morobe goldfields follows, and with it the aircraft and airstrips that opened the interior.
- 1930
First contact in the Highlands
Prospecting expeditions reach densely populated Highlands valleys that no outsider had entered, and that no administration knew existed.
- 23 Jan 1942
Japan takes Rabaul
Rabaul falls and becomes Japan's principal base in the South Pacific, garrisoned in the tens of thousands.
- Jul-Nov 1942
The Kokoda campaign
Japanese forces land at Buna and Gona and push south along the Kokoda Track; Australian and Papuan troops fight them back over four months.
- Aug-Sep 1942
Milne Bay
The Japanese amphibious landing at Milne Bay is defeated — the first time an Allied force had beaten one on land.
- 1942-43
Buna, Gona and Sanananda
Months of costly fighting clear the Japanese beachheads on the north coast.
- 13 Sep 1945
Surrender at Wom
Japanese forces in New Guinea surrender near Wewak, ending three and a half years of occupation and fighting.
- 1949
The Papua and New Guinea Act
Australia joins Papua and New Guinea in a single administrative union, with New Guinea now held under United Nations trusteeship.
- 1951
The Legislative Council
A council with a limited appointed and elected membership begins sitting — the first territory-wide legislature.
- 1964
The first House of Assembly
An elected House of Assembly replaces the Legislative Council, with a majority of members from open electorates.
- 1967
Pangu Pati formed
The territory's first substantial political party, and the vehicle for the independence movement.
- 1972
Somare becomes Chief Minister
Michael Somare forms a coalition government in the House of Assembly.
- 1 Dec 1973
Self-government
Papua New Guinea takes internal self-government, with Australia retaining defence and external affairs.
- 16 Sep 1975
Independence
Papua New Guinea becomes an independent state under a constitution written by its own Constitutional Planning Committee and adopted by its own Constituent Assembly.
- 1975-76
The first Bougainville crisis
Bougainville leaders declare a Republic of the North Solomons days before independence; the dispute is settled by agreement and provincial government in 1976.
- Nov 1988
The Bougainville conflict begins
Sabotage at the Panguna mine escalates into a conflict that would last a decade and kill thousands.
- 1989
Panguna closes
The mine that had underwritten the national budget shuts down, and does not reopen.
- 1990
The blockade
A national blockade of Bougainville cuts off medicine, fuel and trade for years.
- 1997
The Sandline affair
The hiring of foreign mercenaries triggers a confrontation with the PNG Defence Force and brings down the Chan government.
- 1998
The Lincoln Agreement
A ceasefire and truce monitoring open the way to negotiations.
- 30 Aug 2001
The Bougainville Peace Agreement
Autonomy, a weapons disposal programme and a guaranteed future referendum are agreed and later written into the Constitution.
- 2005
The Autonomous Bougainville Government
The first autonomous government is elected under the new constitutional arrangements.
- 2014
PNG LNG ships
The country's largest resource project begins exporting liquefied natural gas.
- Nov-Dec 2019
The Bougainville referendum
Bougainvilleans vote overwhelmingly for independence in the non-binding referendum promised in 2001. The outcome now rests on consultation between the two governments.