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:
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)