Medicinal Plants of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea Part III: The Finschhafen Coast

Abstract

Finschhafen is on the east coast of Morobe Province near Cape Cretin about 125 km (80 miles) due east of Lae. At the time of the survey there was a plan to link the area by road with Lae. Finschhafen was selected as the first capital of German New Guinea in 1885 and was named after Dr. Otto Finsch, the ornithologist and ethnographer. He visited New Guinea in 1881 as a natural history collector but secretly examining the economic potential of the area on behalf of German business interests. Because of the unhealthy climate and high incidence of malaria and blackwater fever, the German administrative centre was soon transfered to Madang and later to Kokopo, near Rabaul on New Britain island. Roads from Finschhafen go west and north along the coast and in the mountains of the Huon Peninsula through Sattelburg and Bolinbaneng towards Pindu.