The District Commissioner
Addendum 10: Hanuabada
Additional information for Chapter 2 New Guinea calls.
Hanuabada, translated into Motu means the great village, is a coastal village built on stilts, and is located on the outskirts of Port Moresby. Today it has a population of at least 15,000.
Many of the players on the Papua New Guinea national cricket team come from here. Of Papua New Guinea's nine Commonwealth Games medals, eight have come from Hanuabada.
The original stilt houses of Hanuabada were constructed from wood with thatched roofs. But they were destroyed by fire during World War II and replaced using modern materials supplied from Australia. Some say the fire in WWII occurred from when a Papuan labourer by mistake put petrol in a kerosene lamp.
Koki is another stilt village and is located at the at the eastern end of Ela Beach.
The Australian War Memorial Accession Number 014969 photo above of Hanuabada is dated 9 June, 1943 and was taken by Norman Brown.
The pre war population was 2,700. Roofing materials were cunai grass or biri palm and were replaced every 3 years.
The photo is of Hanuabada today, the original village of Papua New Guinea's capital city Port Moresby inhabited by the Motuan people and shows the CBD in the background.
The photo was sourced from rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/269521/msf-announces-new-tb-plans-for-png / Johnny Blades.
Ian Stuart in his 1970 book “Port Moresby yesterday and today” states at page 270 that Boe Vagi road running from Champion Road at Hanuabada commemorates the first official Chief of the Motuans. The other main road in the area is Ruatoka named after a Polynesian mission teacher who began his work in 1872 at Manu Manu Village.
Elevala Island is joined to the mainland near Hanuabada by a narrow strip of land.
The photo above of Elevala island viewed from the Reverand Hunt’s mission house in 1899 was taken by AW Dobbie (1843 to 1912) and was sourced from the Art Gallery of South Australia website at wwww.agsa.sa.gov.au/collection-publications/collection/works/elevala-island-viewed-from-the-reverend-hunts-mission-house/29421/ Accession number 20075Ph16, JC Earl Bequest Fund 2007.
Ian Stuart states in his book at page 271 “Just beyond Hanuabada we come to the most historic spot in the whole Port Moresby District. It was here that the first white settlement in British New Guinea was made and here also that the country was formally declared a Protectorate of Great Britain. On the ridge called Metoreia, the buildings of the old London Missionary Society still stand….. (the site of) Dr Lawes’ first home, ‘The House That Jack Built’ is marked by a stone cairn and plaque with the inscription: ‘On this site stood the house of Rev. WG Lawes of the LMS, the first white missionary to settle in Papua. He landed on November 21, 1874.’ The memorial was unveiled by Sir Hubert Murray on November 21, 1934, the 60th anniversary of the missionaries arrival.”
Anne, Princess Royal visited Hanuabada and the site of the 1884 flag-raising as part of her Royal Tour in April, 2022 which was to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee celebrating 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s rule. Princess Anne became the first member of the British monarchy to ever visit the site where the flag was raised during the realm of her great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.