Port Moresby
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The capital city of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the country’s main transport hub, especially for international and domestic flights. That’s why virtually all visitors to PNG enter and depart the country through this city. And that’s almost the only reason for going there. The city is by no means a prime tourist destination, with few sights and a dodgy security situation. Unless you count that as an asset, there’s pretty little for dark tourists either, except for one large Commonwealth War Cemetery.
More background info: This place was given its name in 1873 by one Captain John Moresby who named it, no, not after himself, but in honour of his father, while he was exploring the southern coast of New Guinea. He didn’t really “discover” the place, of course, as there were also settlements of indigenous people already there. Later the same year, missions were established to convert the locals to Christianity. And soon Port Moresby became a trading centre.
Fearing a takeover by the Germans, who were already spreading out in search of new colonies in the South Pacific, the Premier of Queensland quickly claimed Port Moresby for the British Crown in 1883 and annexed it. Shortly after the British stipulated a joint administration of New Guinea south coast by the whole of Australia; and in 1885 Port Moresby became the capital for the British colony of Papua. In 1906, newly independent Australia assumed full direct control of the territory and its capital Port Moresby.
Development and growth were initially slow. It wasn’t until the 1920s that electricity arrived in the city. But the place gained in significance, not least strategic importance:
In WWII, Imperial Japan intended to seize Port Moresby in order to use it as a base for attacks on the Australian mainland. But Australian forces, with support from the USA, repelled the Japanese in the legendary Kokoda Trail Campaign in 1942. Subsequently, Port Moresby was turned into a major base for the Allies that was under the direct command of General Douglas MacArthur (see the MacArthur Museum in Brisbane).
After the war Port Moresby continued to grow and in 1972 was given city status. Following PNG’s being granted independence, Port Moresby became the capital city of that new nation state.
Government buildings such as Parliament House, a National Library and National Museum were built as well as several other large structures, some of which turned out to have been overambitious and became abandoned and neglected.
Today, Port Moresby is PNG’s only major city and has a population that has rapidly grown to something like 800,000 inhabitants (though sources vary widely on such figures). It’s the nation’s administrative, financial, economic and transport hub.
Port Moresby’s reputation in terms of security and tourism appeal is abysmal, though. It has been deemed one of the world’s most dangerous cities. Crime rates are high and visitors are advised not to walk the streets but get around by taxi or private vehicles and avoid the “improvised” bus services.
Most tourists coming to PNG and hence passing through Port Moresby (by necessity – see below) do so on organized tours in any case. And for those tours transport, accommodation and guiding, plus security, where required, will be provided by the tour operators.
What there is to see: When I went to Port Moresby it was supposed to be merely a one night stopover after my flight in from Brisbane and before my next-day onward flight to Rabaul for a few days touring there. So I would normally not have seen anything of Port Moresby other than the airport and the adjacent airport hotel I was put up in. But due to airline failure (as described in more detail here), the trip to Rabaul didn’t happen. And so the local organizers offered a day tour from Port Moresby to the Kokoda Trail – and en route out of the city we made a stop at the Bomana Commonwealth War Cemetery.
This rather vast war cemetery has more or less the same design as these Commonwealth cemeteries have the world over. It’s dominated by endless rows of simple white marble headstones stating the name and rank of the dead soldier and dates of birth and death … provided all these details are known. There are also headstones that simply say “An airman of the 1939-1945 war”, and at the bottom below the cross “Known to God”, i.e. it’s a grave of an unknown soldier. In the back up a hillock is a memorial rotunda listing more names, and by the car park are a few plaques about the war, including the Kokoda Trail Campaign.
That was basically it in terms of dark tourism, unless you count the mining operation I spotted on the edge of town (or maybe it was a landfill site) or the drab view from my room at the cockroach-infested hotel that the airline put me up in after they’d cancelled my Rabaul flight.
So I can’t really say I’d highly recommend visiting Port Moresby other than for a stopover. But at least my enforced longer stay wasn’t entirely fruitless ...
Location: in the south of PNG, some 530 miles (850 km) north of Cairns, Queensland, Australia, a good 1300 miles (2100 km) from Brisbane, from where my international flights departed, and ca. 500 miles (800 km) south-west from Rabaul.
Google Maps locators:
Bomana Commonwealth War Cemetery: [-9.3959, 147.2516]
National Orchid Garden & Wildlife Sanctuary: [-9.3934, 147.2771]
Port Moresby Nature Park: [-9.4052, 147.1652]
Airport: [-9.4388, 147.2114]
Access and costs: reached almost exclusively by plane; not cheap.
Details: International visitors will almost always get to Port Moresby through its airport, whether from abroad or on domestic flights. I flew in from Brisbane, but coming from Australia you can also fly from Sydney or Cairns. And there are also flights in from Manila in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore. Plus numerous domestic connections, which are, however, much more unreliable (as I learned the hard way) than the national airline’s international connections, which are of a pretty good standard.
Overland travel is extremely limited and only possible in the vicinity of the city itself; leaving only coming over the water as an alternative means of reaching PNG. But as far as I can tell there are no ferries, so that leaves only cruise ships, which are naturally of no use to dark tourists (and generally should be avoided in any case).
Around the international airport there are several hotels for accommodation on stopovers requiring a night. There are more hotels in the wider city, not all on the same level of quality, as I had the misfortune to find out after Air Niugini (I call them “Air No-Going” now) failed to get me to Rabaul. The room at the hotel that the airline put me up in for the night after the initial cancellation was totally cockroach infested … but otherwise fine. And for the third night in Port Moresby when I needed to organize a last-minute room on the day, only an expensive five-star place still had rooms available (adding to the heavily accumulating costs of the whole disaster).
Transfers between the airport and the city’s hotels are mainly handled by the hotels themselves, whether at the airport or further away.
As regards food & drinks, there’s very little I can say. I only had hotel food, which was alright but could have been anywhere, though at the cockroach-infested hotel there was at least a chance to try some genuine Papuan cuisine, which was nice. PNG is famous for good coffee, but I know little about it. Most other drinks are imported, not cheap and unremarkable.
Time required: as little as you can manage! I hadn’t planned any time at all for looking around the city and only caught a few glimpses as part of my improvised day tour after the trip to Rabaul had fallen through. I certainly didn’t need the two and half days I had to stay in Port Moresby. Some visitors with sufficient daylight layover time go on a quick city tour (ca. two hours) such as can be organized at the better hotels.
Combinations with other dark destinations: I had planned to fly on out to Rabaul, but as explained above (and in more detail here) that didn’t happen. But at short notice I was instead taken on a tour of the Kokoda Trail, which was at least better than nothing (but cost significantly extra).
Combinations with non-dark destinations: not much within the city itself, apart perhaps from the striking Parliament House and the National Museum, though I visited neither of them. However, at the end of the Kokoda Trail tour (see above) I was taken to a nature refuge where there was a National Orchid Garden and a wildlife and bird sanctuary, featuring amongst many others birds of paradise and a fierce-looking cassowary. But the absolute highlight was seeing several tree kangaroos – including some on the ground – and I swear they are among the cutest species on Earth! That, in fact, was the definite highlight of my otherwise rather catastrophically failed trip to PNG!
There’s also a Port Moresby Nature Park, which features yet more local wildlife, including massive crocodiles, more birds, kangaroos and whatnot. But I didn’t get to see that – although for a while I was unsure as to which of the two places I had been taken to. But unless there’s an orchid garden at this place too, I’m sure it was the other one.
