The Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia.
Its capital, and one of its few major cities, is Port Moresby.

It is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of just under 6 million.
It is also one of the most rural, with only 18 per cent of its people living in urban centres.

The country is also one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.

The majority of the population live in traditional societies and practise subsistence-based agriculture.
These societies and clans have some explicit acknowledgement within the nation's constitutional framework.

The northern half of the country came into German hands in 1884 as German New Guinea. During World War I, it was occupied by Australia, which had begun administering British New Guinea, the southern part, as the re-named Papua in 1904 once Britain was assured, by the federation of the Australian colonies that Queensland (with its equivocal history of race relations), would not have a direct hand in the administration of the territory.
After World War I, Australia was given a mandate to administer the former German New Guinea by the League of Nations.
Papua, by contrast, was deemed to be an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though as a matter of law it remained a British possession, an issue which had significance for the country's post-Independence legal system after 1975. This difference in legal status meant that Papua and New Guinea had entirely separate administrations, both controlled by Australia.

The two territories were combined into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea after World War II, which later was simply referred to as "Papua New Guinea".

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In 1957, Mike Woods, a former member of the Rotary Club of Bournemouth in the UK, arrived in Port Moresby and decided that it was time to start Rotary in Papua New Guinea.

The Rotary Club of Port Moresby was chartered on 19 September 1957.

In quick succession, the Rotary Clubs of Goroka and Lae were both chartered on 26 December 1959.

Goroka however, was closed in 1989 but the tenacity and enthusiasm of its previous members gave rise to its resurrection on 27 April 1993.

Two years later the rapid spread of Rotary throughout the country lead to the creation of the Rotary Club of Rabaul on 18 May 1961.

While many records seem to have been destroyed by nature, it is believed that RC Rabaul was created following a visit by Rotary International Counsellor Lex Fraser.

The forces of nature in the form an active and destructive volcano forced it to close on 19 September 1994 but again, the Rotary spirit prevailed.

One the volcanic activity had dissipated and the township returned to a degree of normality, so did the local Rotarians. The club was re-formed on 1 July 1995.

The RC Goroko was the sponsoring club for the Rotary Club of Madang on 10 August 1962.

The Rotary Club of Wewak also owes its existence to the RC Goroka being chartered on 2 April 1965.

This was followed by the RC Boroko on 13 July 1967 and Bulolo-Wau on 22 March 1982.

Two clubs formed on 1 June 1982 and 3 January 1984, RC Kundiawa and RC Arawa respectively tried to survive for several years but were eventually forced to close.

On 28 August 1985, the Rotary Club of Huon Gulf was chartered and has the honour of being the first club in Papua New Guinea to be the godfather for the first Rotaract Club in Papua New Guinea.

It was one year after all this activity that the first Rotary club was formed in our neighbouring Solomon Islands and we continue to have strong relations with the clubs in that country.

The three "K"s - Kavieng, Kokopo and Kimbe followed in that order.

As can be seen from the map above, the easterly island province of New Ireland found its first Rotary Club created on 26 August 1998, sponsored from Rabaul.

Rabaul gave birth to the Rotary Club of Kokopo on 9 December 1998and also, with the help from the RC Kokopo, the Rotary Club of Kimbe on 26 May 1999.

All the Rotary Clubs in Papua New Guinea and indeed, the two clubs on Solomon Islands, fall within the boundaries of District 9600 which is administered from the Brisbane office.

A short history of all the clubs in Papua New Guinea may be found in alphabetical order, under our page for District 9600.