Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of 660 square kilometres (250 sq mi) that is about 80 kilometres (50 mi) long and 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) wide. It is the second largest raised coral atoll in the world with the largest lake in the insular Pacific (Lake Tegano) that is listed as a World Heritage Site. Rennell Island has a population of about 3000 persons of Polynesian descent who primarily speak Renbelian, Pigin and some English. Rennell and Bellona Islands are two of the few islands in the Melanesian Solomon Island archipelago classified Polynesian (others being Sikaiana, Ontong Java, Tikopia, Anuta, Duff Islands and some Reef Islands).
The island lies 236 kilometres (147 mi) south of Honiara and 1,900 kilometres (1,200 mi) north-east of Brisbane. The provincial capital, Tigoa, is at the western end of the island.
Read more about Rennell Island: History, Geography, Culture, Provincial Government, Agriculture, Demographics, Police Services, Crime, Religions, Medical, Education, Communications, Utilities, Transport, Villages & Population
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)