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Kavieng

city

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ1017358 ↗
Source-derived summary

Kavieng is the capital of the Papua New Guinean province of New Ireland and the largest town on the island of the same name. The town is located at Balgai Bay, on the northern tip of the island. As of 2009, it had a population of 17,248.

Kavieng is the main port for New Ireland, and is both a trading and tourist destination. Several dive companies operate from the town, as the area is known for its diving, both for natural sites and wrecks dating from the Second World War. There are plane and shipwrecks in Kavieng Harbor itself, as well as several more nearby.

The town is serviced by Kavieng Airport, with daily connections to Port Moresby. It lies at one end of the Boluminski Highway which runs 293 kilometres (182 mi) of sealed road to Namatanai.

Kavieng has all the usual services of a local administrative center: local government offices; shopping; hotels (such as the Kavieng Hotel, the Malagan Beach Resort hotel and the Kavieng Club (the former "colonial club" in the town); a hospital providing general medical, pediatric and surgical services; and a weekly market. There is also a large wharf for copra export on the town's edge, which allow deep-water ships to load copra and oil directly from land.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Kavieng” as city. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kavieng and city.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1900. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Kavieng and city providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kavieng”, the useful work is to connect “city” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1017358. Authority coordinates are -2.567, 150.800. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kavieng”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kavieng primary sources, Kavieng archive and Kavieng research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kavieng”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Kavieng” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.