Have you visited Australia's closest neighbour Papua New Guinea?

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 8 years ago

Have you visited Australia's closest neighbour Papua New Guinea?

By Ben Groundwater
Updated
Loading

Pop quiz: which country is Australia's closest neighbour?

You could be forgiven for immediately thinking of New Zealand, given it's closer to the east coast of Australia than Perth is, and shares many of our cultural traits. You might even name Indonesia, which really isn't far to the north, and certainly dominates our news.

But you'd be wrong on both counts, because the largely forgotten country that is only 3.7 kilometres away from Australian soil at its nearest point, is Papua New Guinea. PNG. It takes just an hour to fly from Cairns to Port Moresby. It's three hours from Brisbane. That's very close.

No it's not New Zealand or Indonesia: Papua New Guinea is the nearest point to Australian soil.

No it's not New Zealand or Indonesia: Papua New Guinea is the nearest point to Australian soil.Credit: iStock

And yet how many Australian tourists have ever visited our nearest neighbour? We all like to proudly tell the world that we're hardcore travellers who think nothing of an eight-hour flight for a short holiday in Asia – but who's been to PNG?

I was in the country recently, and started to realise just how much there is to offer for tourists up there, and how few Australians ever get to experience it. This is thought of as the home of the Kokoda Trail, and that's about it. No one else comes up here.

Granted, there are some barriers to travelling in PNG, but they're probably not the ones you're thinking of. Security is a certainly an issue in cities such as Port Moresby and Lae, but if you avoid those areas – which is easy enough to do – then you'll find other parts of the country surprisingly friendly and safe.

How many Australian tourists have ever visited our nearest neighbour?

How many Australian tourists have ever visited our nearest neighbour?Credit: Inga Ting

Smart Traveller recommends visitors to PNG "exercise a high degree of caution". That's the same level of warning as Brazil, or Turkey. Stay out of Moresby and it's really not that bad.

Advertisement

One of the main issues for Australian travellers to Papua New Guinea is cost – this is not a cheap country to travel to, whether that's for flights to get up there or for costs once you're on the ground. There's a sort of false economy for foreigners in PNG, where hotel stays and food at decent restaurants can cost more than it does in Sydney or Melbourne.

The other issue is time. PNG might be our closest neighbour, but if you're flying from Sydney or Melbourne, you're probably looking at three flights and a full day of travel to get to the sort of area you'd actually want to holiday in – somewhere like Milne Bay, or Rabaul. In that amount of travel time you could also get to Thailand, or Bali, or Vanuatu.

Local children in New Ireland, a province in northeastern  Papua New Guinea.

Local children in New Ireland, a province in northeastern Papua New Guinea.Credit: Inga Ting

So it's going to take a little bit of dedication to visit our closest neighbour, which is perhaps what scares some people off. Those who do make the effort, however, will find a fascinating country that has so much more to offer than a dangerous capital city and a historic hike.

The tribal culture in Papua New Guinea, for starters, is amazing. This is the sort of stuff that people spend thousands of dollars to travel to Africa and see, and it's right on our doorstep. There are more than 820 different languages spoken in PNG by tribes who are rich with distinct cultures.

You can do homestays in villages with no electricity or running water up there, stay in tiny places on islands or in mountain villages inhabited by friendly people keen to share their way of life. You can watch dances and ceremonies and see costumes and dresses that are far more distinctive and bizarre and interesting than anything you could find in, say, Zambia or Tanzania.

For scuba divers, Papua New Guinea might just be the best destination in the world, with beautiful untouched reefs in the area around Milne Bay, and sunken wrecks from World War II still lying on the ocean floor near Rabaul. And you have to share these underwater marvels with pretty much no one except the fish.

Speaking of World War II, there's enough Australian history here to rival sights in Europe, much of it seemingly forgotten in the fervor surrounding Gallipoli. As well as Kokoda, the Battle of Milne Bay marked the first victory by Allied troops over the Japanese in WWII, and Australian troops were heavily involved in the area around Rabaul, where many of the Japanese bases and pieces of heavy artillery can still be found.

It's a little wild in PNG, a little edgy. It's amazing to think that you're still so close to Australia when you wander around a local market up there, watching people selling betel nut and mustard sticks, or stewed cassava wrapped in banana leaves. There are places there where shells are still used as currency.

It's another world. It's also exactly the kind of thing that adventure travellers seek when they journey so far from home. And it's right on our doorstep.

Have you been to Papua New Guinea? If not, would you want to go? Leave a comment below.

Email: b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater

​See also: The world's safest cities for travellers
See also: Ten travel experiences you should never stop doing

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading