Choiseul Province
Encyclopedia
Provinces of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is currently divided into 9 provinces. The national capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, is separately governed as Capital Territory.-History:...
of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. It lies between the island of Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
(part of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
) and Santa Isabel
Santa Isabel Island
Santa Isabel Island is the longest in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, and the largest in the group of islands in Isabel Province.-Location and geographic data:...
in the west of the Solomon Islands.
It consists mainly of Choiseul Island
Choiseul Island
Choiseul Island, native name Lauru, is the largest island of the Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands, at .-Description:This island is named after Étienne François, duc de Choiseul....
with an area of 3 294 km² and further includes three small surrounding islands: Taro Island
Taro Island
Taro Island is a small island in the Solomon Islands with 507 inhabitants, capital of Choiseul Province and is located in Choiseul Bay off the northwest coast....
(1.5 km²), Vaghena
Vaghena Island
Wagina Island, or as it used to be misspelled in colonial times Vaghena Island is a small community in the Solomon Islands with 320 inhabitants, most of whom live along the shores of the Kenli Bay, where a small docking station is built for both residents and visitors.There are three villages in...
(243 km²) and Rob Roy
Rob Roy Island
Rob Roy Island is an island in the Solomon Islands; it is located in Choiseul Province....
(200 km²). It has a population of 26,379 (2009). The capital is Taro, on Taro Island
Taro Island
Taro Island is a small island in the Solomon Islands with 507 inhabitants, capital of Choiseul Province and is located in Choiseul Bay off the northwest coast....
.
Discovery and naming
When the SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira was a Spanish navigator. Born in Congosto, in León, he was the nephew of Lope García de Castro, viceroy of Peru...
discovered this island in 1568 he named it San Marcos ('Saint Mark').
It was almost forgotten for 200 years until the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of James Cook, he took part in the French and Indian War and the unsuccessful French attempt to defend Canada from Britain...
rediscovered it and named it after the Minister of foreign affairs and statesman Choiseul
Étienne François, duc de Choiseul
Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France's global strategy throughout the period...
.
Colonial era
Like BukaBuka Island
Buka Island is the second largest island in the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville.- History :Buka was first occupied by humans in paleolithic times, some 30,000 years ago...
, Bougainville (both now part of Papua New Guinea's North Solomons Province), Santa Isabel
Santa Isabel Island
Santa Isabel Island is the longest in the Solomon Islands, South Pacific, and the largest in the group of islands in Isabel Province.-Location and geographic data:...
, and Ontong Islands, it has been part of the German Solomon Islands till 1899, when Germany ceded all but the first two islands to become part of the British Solomon Islands, from then on sharing in their political fate until the independence from Britain (as Solomon Islands) on 7 July 1978. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Choiseul was partly occupied by Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese military forces whose garrison was raided
Raid on Choiseul
-External links: Also available at:...
by US marine forces in October and November, 1943.
Independent era
On 25 February 1995, a separate Choiseul province was created by separation from the Western province.It has had the following Premiers:
- 1992 - 1996 Clement Kengava
- 1996 - 2000 Simmy Vazarabatu
- 2000 - present Jackson Kiloe
Health
The Choiseul Provincial Health Service (CPHS)has 26 health facilities around the province. The main referral provincial hospital is the Taro Hospital. The hospital is based on the Taro Island which is also the island capital of the province. It is the first certified Baby Friendly Hospital in the Solomon Islands in October 2010. And awarded the shield by UNICEF and WHO. The award means that Taro Hospital advocates for exclusive breastfeeding for babies up to six months before introduction of soft diet. The hospital also does not encourage artificial and bottle feeding of babies. It also has links to community groups that support, protect and promote the practice of exclusive breast feeding of babies within Taro Hospital catchment area.The Choiseul Provincial Health Service is also very active in health promotion and education targeting the rural population. In pays emphasis on preventative activities down to the rural areas with the help of community groups, churches and donor partners.
Taro Hospital offers the following primary health programs, reproductive health on ante natal and post natal care, childhealth on immunization, nutrition and breastfeeding practices ,non communicable disease,mental health services and malaria program.
People
The people consists of several Melanesian tribes including the Gilbertese who live on Vaghena. In the 19th century head hunting and blackbirdingBlackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
were widespread in the Solomon Islands. This led to the extinction of the people on Vaghena in the 1870s. Even in the 20th century the Choiseul islanders were ill-reputed as brutal cannibals so that visitors only came with armed forces to that island. In 1916 there were brutal feuds between the several tribes which were ended by the peace treaty of Sasamungga on August 8, 1921. This event, called Kulabule, is a holiday on Choiseul.
Football
The inhabitants of Choiseul are soccer enthusiasts. They have a team called Lauru Kuvojo, which in 2005 took part at the Solomon-Cup, the national football championship of the Solomon Islands. They have finished their participation already in the preliminary round.Flora and fauna
The flora and fauna are both characteristic of Australia and New Guinea. The biggest mammal is the endangered DugongDugong
The dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...
, a seacow which occurs in the waters near Rob Roy and Taro Island. The largest reptile is the Saltwater Crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile
The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...
(Crocodylus porosus) known from Australia. Known birds are the Sanford's Fish Eagle
Sanford's Fish Eagle
The Sanford's Sea Eagle , sometimes listed as Sanford's Fish Eagle or Solomon Eagle, is a sea-eagle endemic to the Solomon Islands. The "sea-eagle" name is to be preferred, to distinguish the species of Haliaeetus from the closely related Ichthyophaga true fish eagles...
(Haliaeetus sanfordi), the Pacific Black Duck
Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific Black Duck is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the Grey Duck in New Zealand...
(Anas superciliosa), and the Eastern Reef Egret
Eastern Reef Egret
The Eastern Reef Heron , also known as the Pacific Reef Egret or Eastern Reef Egret, is a kind of heron. They are found in many areas of Asia including the oceanic region of India, Southeast Asia, Japan, Polynesia, and in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.Pacific Reef Herons are medium-sized...
(Egretta sacra). Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the only habitat of the now extinct Choiseul Crested Pigeon
Choiseul Crested Pigeon
The Choiseul Crested Pigeon is a presumedly extinct pigeon which was only known on the Solomon island of Choiseul in the Pacific. This species was first described by Walter Rothschild in 1904 and named in honour of Albert Stewart Meek. The Choiseul islanders called that species kukuru-ni-lua which...
(Microgoura meeki). Choiseul is also an important breeding place for the Loggerhead sea turtle
Loggerhead sea turtle
The loggerhead sea turtle , or loggerhead, is an oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around long when fully grown, although larger specimens of up to have been discovered...
(Caretta caretta). The flora is represented by mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s and coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
s.
Islands
- ChoiseulChoiseul IslandChoiseul Island, native name Lauru, is the largest island of the Choiseul Province, Solomon Islands, at .-Description:This island is named after Étienne François, duc de Choiseul....
- Cyprian BridgeCyprian Bridge IslandCyprian Bridge Island is a small island located amongst the Solomon Islands. The island lies at a latitude of -6.85 and a longitude of 156.18333. It is an uninhabited volcanic island that lies between the islands of Fauro and Choiseul...
- NuatambuNuatambuNuatambu is an island in the Solomon Islands; it is located in Choiseul Province....
- Rob RoyRob Roy IslandRob Roy Island is an island in the Solomon Islands; it is located in Choiseul Province....
- TaroTaro IslandTaro Island is a small island in the Solomon Islands with 507 inhabitants, capital of Choiseul Province and is located in Choiseul Bay off the northwest coast....
- VaghenaVaghena IslandWagina Island, or as it used to be misspelled in colonial times Vaghena Island is a small community in the Solomon Islands with 320 inhabitants, most of whom live along the shores of the Kenli Bay, where a small docking station is built for both residents and visitors.There are three villages in...
External links
- Information about Choiseul (engl.)
- History of Choiseul (engl.)
- WorldStatesmen- Solomon Islands & includes flag
- Exploring Solomons - Choiseul page