Honiara: Village-City of Solomon Islands

List of figures
	Figure 0.1 Honiara’s ‘worlds’ in order of their social, economic, and political importance, 1940s – 2010s.
	Figure 9.1 The population of Greater Honiara: The Honiara City Council area and the adjacent peri-urban population of Guadalcanal Province, 1959–2019.
List of maps
	Map 0.1 Solomon Islands.
	Map 0.2 Guadalcanal Province and Honiara, 2021.
	Map 0.3 Modern Solomon Islands urban centres.
	Map 1.1 Languages and dialects of Guadalcanal.
	Map 1.2 Levers’ Tenaru Estate, showing the years various sections were planted and the boundaries with Ilu and Lungga estates.
	Map 1.3 1920 map showing the Tandai claim and the Occupational Lease claimed by Levers.
	Map 1.4 Levers’ land claim as of 26 May 1920.
	Map 1.5 1920 map showing the boundaries of Levers’ land from the east bank of the Mataniko River to the boundary with William Dumphy’s Tenavatu plantation.
	Map 1.6 The area that became east Honiara, as it was when examined by the Phillips Lands Commission in Claim 17, 12 May 1922.
	Map 1.7 Map of Guadalcanal, 1930s.
	Map 2.1 The main Japanese bases in the Bismarck and Solomon archipelagos, between 1942 and 1945.
	Map 2.2 The north coast of Guadalcanal during World War II, from the Metapona River to Visale.
	Map 2.3 Iron Bottom Sound between Guadalcanal, Savo, and the Ngela (Florida) islands, showing the sites of some of the Japanese, American, and Australian ships sunk there.
	Map 2.4 The Carney and Koli airfield complex was the largest of the American airfields on Guadalcanal.
	Map 3.1 1947 map of Levers’ 8,225 hectares of land, stretching from the east bank of the Mataniko River to Tenaru.
	Map 3.2 The area contested by Baranaba Hoai in 1964 on behalf of the Tandai landowners.
	Map 3.3 The land of Mamara Plantation Limited, 9 March 1948, from the coast west of White River, into the headwaters, and east to Vatudaki.
	Map 4.1 Guadalcanal council wards in the early 1970s, showing details of settlements in the north-west, which were the main areas supplying Honiara’s Central Market.
	Map 5.1 Honiara Town Council boundary in 1959.
	Map 5.2 Honiara’s town boundary, 1976.
	Map 5.3 The west of Honiara City Council’s land and adjacent customary-owned areas of Guadalcanal, 2010s.
	Map 6.1 Honiara in the 1970s.
	Map 6.2 Guadalcanal Plains east of the Honiara City Council land in the 1970s, showing the mixed usage.
	Map 7.1 The central area of Honiara in 1968, from the Masonic Lodge to the tobacco factory.
	Map 8.1 Honiara in the 1960s, showing the segregated communities.
	Map 9.1 Honiara town and boundary, 1981.
	Map 9.2 Honiara (in black) and oil palm plantations (in grey) on Guadalcanal Plains, 2009.
	Map 10.1 Settlements (THA/TOL and squatter) within or on the Honiara City Council boundaries, 2019.
	Map 10.2 A 2015 Honiara citywide structural plan showing the proposed bypass road.
	Map 10.3 A 2015 Honiara city centre structural plan.
	Map 10.4 Honiara’s current and projected urban growth, 2006–25.
	Map 10.5 Greater Honiara, including the area of the Honiara City Council (in green) and Tandai and Malango wards (in red) of Guadalcanal Provincial Government.
List of plates
	Plate 1.1 The area of Guadalcanal that became Honiara.
	Plate 1.2 A bronze bust of Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira installed at the Solomon Islands National Museum in 2014.
	Plate 1.3 Point Cruz in 1944.
	Plate 1.4 The mouth of the Mataniko River, 1920s.
	Plate 1.5 Horahi village is in the centre of this 1942 photograph, in a clearing along the beach on the west side of the mouth of the Mataniko River.
	Plate 1.6 Horahi village in the 1920s.
	Plate 1.7 The home of the Catholic missionary at Horahi village, 1920s.
	Plate 1.8 Horahi village in August 1942 overlaid on a modern view of Honiara.
	Plate 2.1 Coastwatcher Martin Clemens and members of the Solomon Islands Defence Force, August 1942.
	Plate 2.2 The partly completed Japanese airfield and dispersal area at Lungga, 7 July 1942, which later became Henderson Airfield.
	Plate 2.3 American troops advancing through the site of the burnt-out Horahi village on the Mataniko River, November 1942.
	Plate 2.4 American troops at the mouth of the Mataniko River in 1943.
	Plate 2.5 The Mataniko River footbridge built by the Americans in 1942.
	Plate 2.6 The Mataniko River vehicle bridge built by the Americans, 1943.
	Plate 2.7 The 11th Marines firing a 155 mm gun.
	Plate 2.8 When Solomon Islanders saw the scale of the American landing on Guadalcanal in 1942, it was almost beyond comprehension.
	Plate 2.9 The American supply base at the mouth of the Lungga River, on the edge of what is now Honiara, 1940s.
	Plate 2.10 Americans and Solomon Islanders from the Solomon Islands Defence Force on Kakabona Beach, 25 January 1943.
	Plate 2.11 Solomon Islands Labour Corps unloading fuel drums at Lungga Beach, March 1943.
	Plate 2.12 Solomon Islands Labour Corps unloading cartons of beer at Camp Guadal, 29 January 1944.
	Plate 2.13 Solomon Islands Labour Corps unwinding copper wire for the telephone system, Camp Guadal, June 1943.
	Plate 2.14 Captain William M. Quiglay, Commander of the Naval Base at Camp Guadal, 22 August 1942, driving the last spike into the ‘Guadalcanal–Bougainville–Tokyo Express’ railway, which was built in three days by the American Seabees.
	Plate 2.15 Major J.J. Mather paying members of the Solomon Islands Labour Corps at Camp Guadal, 28 January 1942, while being filmed for US publicity.
	Plate 2.16 A US Marine wearing a Japanese sword and water bottle, and three members of the SIDF, at Camp Guadal on 28 December 1942.
	Plate 2.17 Three US Marines and a Seabee sharing a drink with members of the Solomon Islands Labour Corps at Camp Guadalcanal in August 1943.
	Plate 2.18 A US Marine and two Solomon Islanders listening to a gramophone. The man on the right is holding a Japanese bayonet.
	Plate 2.19 Solomon Islanders taking communion at Camp Guadal, Easter 1943.
	Plate 2.20 Guadalcanal women pose with a US Marines recruitment poster in 1944. Very few of the war photographs depict women.
	Plate 2.21 Unloading trucks at the lagoon at the mouth of the Lungga River.
	Plate 2.22 Fighter I Airfield in the foreground, Henderson Airfield in the middle, and Fighter II Airfield in the far distance, abutting the coast, 1943.
	Plate 2.23 One of the movie theatres at Camp Guadal during the war years.
	Plate 2.24 Jacob Vouza and members of the SIDF, 25 January 1944.
	Plate 2.25 In 1990, this statue of former policeman, Scout, and war hero Sir Jacob Vouza was added to the war memorial at Rove Police Headquarters.
	Plate 2.26 The Solomons Scouts and Coastwatchers Memorial in Commonwealth Avenue, Honiara, erected in 2011.
	Plate 3.1 The Point Cruz area of Camp Guadal in 1944.
	Plate 3.2 The main coastal highway heading towards Point Cruz, in 1944. The Americans called it the ‘Burma Highway’.
	Plate 3.3 Camp Guadal in about 1945, from Lengakiki Flats to Point Cruz.
	Plate 3.4 A Queen’s Birthday parade in Honiara in the late 1940s.
	Plate 3.5 The American bridge over the Lungga River on the Honiara side of Henderson Airfield in October 1945.
	Plate 3.6 Quonset huts of all sizes were everywhere—the most useful remnant of the war years.
	Plate 3.7 In 1951, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia began operations in Honiara, housed in a Quonset hut.
	Plate 3.8 The BSIP Trading Corporation Limited was housed in a large Quonset hut in Mendana Avenue, 1960s.
	Plate 3.9 The staff of the BSIP Trading Corporation Limited, 1960s.
	Plate 3.10 Alan and Doreen Lindley’s house in Mud Alley, 1952.
	Plate 3.11 Arnold and Mary Cowmeadow’s thatched house with woven bamboo walls in the grounds of Government House, 1960s.
	Plate 3.12 The Mendana Hotel in the late 1950s.
	Plate 3.13 The Honiara Club, showing murals created by King George VI School art students in 1971.
	Plate 3.14 The Point Cruz Cinema in Mendana Avenue in the late 1950s.
	Plate 3.15 West Honiara from the bottom of Lengakiki Ridge, 1956.
	Plate 4.1 Walkabout Long Chinatown, the Viking album featuring the song of the same name by Edwin Sitori, Rone Naqu, and Jason Que.
	Plate 4.2 Aerial view of Chinatown in the 1950s.
	Plate 4.3 View down Chinatown’s main street in the 1950s.
	Plate 4.4 View into Chinatown, showing the typical trade stores, in the early 1960s.
	Plate 4.5 Chinatown in the 1960s.
	Plate 4.6 The Bailey bridge over the Mataniko River, and part of Chinatown.
	Plate 4.7 Aerial view of Chinatown, 1968.
	Plate 4.8 Mataniko River and Chinatown, also showing the beginning of housing on the ridges, 1981.
	Plate 4.9 Gilbertese migrants in the 1950s.
	Plate 4.10 Honiara’s Central Market was a simple affair when it began in the 1950s.
	Plate 4.11 Betel nut sellers in Honiara’s Central Market, 1970s.
	Plate 4.12 The Compass Rose II carrying thousands of pineapples from Malaita to Honiara’s Central Market, 1994.
	Plate 4.13 Honiara’s tobacco factory, 1972 (see position on Map 7.1).
	Plate 5.1 Central District Headquarters in Honiara, 1956.
	Plate 5.2 Flamboyant poinciana trees in Hibiscus Avenue, Honiara, 1968.
	Plate 5.3 This 1970s photograph shows the typical accommodation for labourers at the back of stores or commercial premises in town between the 1950s and the 1970s.
	Plate 5.4 This sign was placed on Kukum Beach opposite the Kukum Labour Line by the Honiara Town Council.
	Plate 5.5 Housing at Mbokonavera in the 1970s, with a bicycle in pride of place.
	Plate 5.6 The beginnings of Vura housing estate in 1968.
	Plate 5.7 Ella and John Ru`ugwata Kaliuae in 1988. They were early settlers at Vura.
	Plate 5.8 Kola`a Ridge squatter settlement on the inland side of the established suburb, 1969.
	Plate 5.9 The ‘Fishery’, Honiara’s Malaitan Fishing Village, on the beachfront at Kukum, 2008.
	Plate 5.10 Jack and Margaret Leonga Ramosaea, early settlers at White River, photographed in 1982.
	Plate 5.11 A Housing Authority home at White River, 2008.
	Plate 5.12 The typical home of a middle-class White River family, 2008.
	Plate 5.13 Kobito 2 in 1968, which was then reminiscent of a Malaitan village.
	Plate 5.14 The first houses at Kobito 2 were built from local materials. This photograph is from 1968.
	Plate 5.15 Billy Toa Te`e, originally from Kwara`ae on Malaita, lived at White River, before settling at Kobito 2 in the 1980s. He is seen here with two members of his family in the 1990s.
	Plate 5.16 Roselyn Aona Toa Te`e, wife of Billy Toa Te`e, 1980s.
	Plate 5.17 The original 1970s Toa Te`e house at Kobito 2 had ripple-iron walls as well as an unlined roof.
	Plate 5.18 Urban renewal: The walls of the Toa Te`e home at Kobito 2 were renovated with wood in the 2000s.
	Plate 5.19 Some of the first minibuses in Mendana Avenue, Honiara, in the 1970s.
	Plate 6.1 The WPHC High Court building was built in 1964.
	Plate 6.2 Solomon Islands Museum at the time it was built in 1968.
	Plate 6.3 In the 1960s, two high-rise residential buildings were constructed in Honiara.
	Plates 6.4–6.6 Blums’ Hometel, built in Hibiscus Avenue in 1964, was the most socially advanced of Honiara’s hotels and welcomed everyone.
	Plate 6.7 Aerial photograph from December 1944 of ‘Namba 9’, the 9th US Casualty Clearing Station, close to the Mataniko River.
	Plate 6.8 The tuberculosis ward at Central Hospital, mid-1950s.
	Plate 6.9 National Referral Hospital, Honiara, 2016.
	Plate 6.10 BSIP police headquarters at Rove, 1952.
	Plate 6.11 Queen’s Birthday parade, Rove Police Headquarters, 1950s. The building at the rear is the Police Club.
	Plate 6.12 Honiara Police Station in 1952, constructed from a Quonset hut and scrap US Army materials.
	Plate 6.13 Honiara’s new police station, completed in 1963, was renamed Central Police Station.
	Plate 6.14 Kukum docks in 1945, built by the Americans. The area is opposite what is now Panatina Plaza.
	Plate 6.15 In the 1950s, work began on reshaping Point Cruz to create a port.
	Plate 6.16 RCS Melanesian at Honiara wharf in 1958.
	Plate 6.17 Point Cruz wharves in the 1960s. A Quonset hut from the war years is visible on the shore.
	Plate 6.18 The interisland shipping wharves in 2017, with the centre of Honiara behind.
	Plate 6.19 Honiara Airfield in the 1950s, on the site of the Fighter II Airfield at what is now Ranadi.
	Plate 6.20 The first SIBC Board meeting, 1982.
	Plate 7.1 The American chapel built for the armed forces and Solomon Islanders, which was dedicated on 12 September 1943.
	Plate 7.2 St Barnabas’ Anglican Cathedral, 2017. It was built between 1968 and 1969.
	Plate 7.3 Holy Cross Catholic Cathedral (centre), at the foot of the road to Skyline, was built between 1977 and 1978.
	Plate 7.4 The Ko`o Football Team in 1972, one of the teams playing in the Honiara football competition.
	Plate 7.5 The front entrance to King George VI School.
	Plate 7.6 The chapel at King George VI School.
	Plate 7.7 King George VI School students in about 1968, with school buildings in the background.
	Plate 7.8 Prize winners at King George VI School in 1970.
	Plate 7.9 The Teacher and Vocational Training College in the late 1950s.
	Plate 7.10 Sir Donald Luddington, the final Western Pacific High Commissioner (1973–74) and the first Governor of the BSIP (1974–76), reviewing students at a TS Ranadi Marine Training School graduation ceremony.
	Plate 7.11 Nurses at Central Hospital in the 1960s.
	Plate 7.12 A University of the South Pacific graduation ceremony at the Panatina Pavilion in Honiara, 2009. Vice-Chancellor Professor Rajesh Chandra is presenting a student with his degree.
	Plate 7.13 Gold medal graduates and two of the medal sponsors at the graduation ceremony for the Solomon Islands National University, 2018.
	Plate 7.14 The senior executive of the Solomon Islands National University at the graduation ceremony, 2018.
	Plate 7.15 Honiara Women’s Club, 1962.
	Plate 7.16 Selina Tale (YWCA-SI Kindergarten Supervisor), Christina Maezama (General Secretary, 1980–92), and Vera Sautehi (Extension Officer) outside the YWCA premises at Rove, Honiara, in the early 1980s.
	Plate 7.17 A YWCA hostel room, probably in the early 1980s.
	Plate 7.18 The YWCA kindergarten in the early 1960s.
	Plate 7.19 Lilly Valahoe Ogatini Poznanski was a role model for women in the 1960s and 1970s.
	Plate 7.20 Women selling barbecued fish at Honiara International Airport—Henderson Field, 2004.
	Plate 7.21 White River resident Ellen Angofia (centre) selling tie-dyed lap-laps in 1998 at a cultural event.
	Plate 7.22 A woman selling bilums in Honiara, 2010.
	Plate 7.23 Randall Sukumana preparing for his kindergarten class, at Skyline, 2006.
	Plate 7.24 Woodford School students, 1976.
	Plate 7.25 Girl Guides in Honiara, 2006.
	Plate 7.26 Children at Vura School, 2007.
	Plate 7.27 Bartholomew Ulufa`alu—trade union leader and, later, politician and prime minister—in the 1980s.
	Plate 7.28 Joses Taungengo Tuhanuku—trade union leader and, later, politician, cabinet minister, and leader of the opposition—in 1981.
	Plate 8.1 The High Commissioner’s Humber Super Snipe carrying the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1969, undergoing a traditional challenge from warriors.
	Plate 8.2 New Government House in 1969. It has since been incorporated into the Heritage Park Hotel.
	Plate 8.3 The Honiara War Cenotaph was constructed in 1959.
	Plate 8.4 A government officer’s house up on the ridges, 1972.
	Plate 8.5 The same house as in Plate 8.4, showing its ridge-top position and the view out to sea.
	Plates 8.6–8.9 Cultural dancers in the 1950s.
	Plate 8.10 Pelise Moro, leader of the Moro Movement, and some of his followers in Honiara in 1971.
	Plate 8.11 King George VI School students ready to dance, 1968.
	Plate 8.12 A Makira canoe crew at Point Cruz in 1969 during the Sea Festival.
	Plate 8.13 Makira canoes at Point Cruz in 1969 during the Sea Festival.
	Plate 8.14 Members of the Legislative Council in 1961.
	Plate 8.15 Chief Minister Peter Kenilorea addressing the motion to adopt the National Constitution, April 1978.
	Plate 8.16 Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative at the independence ceremony in Honiara, with Prime Minister Peter Kenilorea looking on, 7 July 1978.
	Plate 9.1 Busy Mendana Avenue in 2014.
	Plate 9.2 The Honiara waterfront to the east of Point Cruz in 2017, showing international ships at the old main wharf on the right and the smaller interisland shipping wharves to the left.
	Plate 9.3 Honiara’s modern interisland shipping wharves, 2014.
	Plate 9.4 A prosperous Lengakiki Ridge house, 2014.
	Plate 9.5 A typical Honiara house combining local and Western materials, 2014.
	Plate 9.6 Prime Minister Ezekiel Alebua (1986–89), later Premier of Guadalcanal Province (1998–2003), during the Tensions.
	Plate 9.7 Bartholomew Ulufa`alu, Prime Minister of Solomon Islands (1997–2000), addresses the UN General Assembly in New York on 30 September 1999.
	Plate 9.8 RAMSI soldiers and RSIPF officers talking to a school group, 2000s.
	Plate 9.9 RAMSI soldiers outside the Magistrate’s Court in Honiara, 2006.
	Plate 9.10 The entrance of the Pacific Casino Hotel burning during the April 2006 riot.
	Plate 9.11 Burnt-out buildings in Chinatown after the April 2006 riot.
	Plate 9.12 The Quan family’s QQQ store in Chinatown, 2006, which was not harmed during the riots.
	Plate 9.13 The RAMSI Memorial in Honiara, opened in June 2017.
	Plate 9.14 The Solomon Islands National Parliament building, built in 1994, was a gift from the US Government.
	Plate 9.15 Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza (2001–06).
	Plate 9.16 Prime Minister Rick Hounipwela (2017–19).
	Plate 9.17 Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (2000–01, 2006–07, 2014–17, 2019–).
	Plate 10.1 Hybridity: A rest house at the Honiara Trade Show in 2008—symbolic of the old and the new.
	Plate 10.2 Hybridity: Neighbouring houses at Fishing Village are often built close together.
	Plate 10.3 Hendry Billy Toa Te`e’s house at Kobito 2, which was built over a few years in the 2010s as money became available.
	Plate 10.4 Emelda Davis (left), an Australian South Sea Islander, visiting the family of Hendry Billy Toa Te`e at Kobito, 2014.
	Plate 10.5 ‘No weapons (sharp or pointed)’: The Pipeline Disco, Hibiscus Hotel, Honiara, 1994.
	Plate 10.6 Youths dressed up for a dance competition entitled ‘Battlegrounds’, 2016.
	Plate 10.7 The next generation: Vura Primary School students, 2007.
	Plate 10.8 Small health clinics run by the Honiara City Council are spread through the suburbs. This one is in White River, 2008.
	Plate 10.9 The Sunday Fishing Village market on Kukum Highway, 2011.
	Plate 10.10 Central Market on the waterside, 2017.
	Plate 10.11 Thousands of people visit Honiara’s Central Market every day.
	Plate 10.12 A market stall at Honiara International Airport—Henderson Field, 2004.
	Plate 10.13 Chinatown from lower Skyline Ridge, 2011.
	Plate 10.14 Mendana Avenue, 2008.
	Plate 10.15 View of the Point Cruz area from Parliament, 2008.
	Plate 10.16 A women’s marching group in Vura, Honiara, 1995.
	Plate 10.17 Cultures are preserved through cultural groups performing at public events. Here, Malaitan panpipe dancers perform at the Art Gallery in 1995.
	Plates 10.18–10.20 A Malaitan bride-price ceremony for Clive Maesae and Salome Stella in August 2011.
	Plate 10.21 Point Cruz Yacht Club, 2008.
	Plate 10.22 Sabot racing in front of the Point Cruz Yacht Club, looking out to the patrol boat wharf, 2007.
	Plate 10.23 The front entrance of King Solomon Hotel, 2006.
	Plate 10.24 Governor-General Sir David Vunagi GCMG KStJ and Lady Mary Vunagi, 2020.
	Plate 10.25 Isabel Province dancers on Independence Day, 2005, at Lawson Tama.
	Plate 10.26 Independence Day celebrations at Lawson Tama, Honiara, 2008.
List of tables
	Table 4.1 Population of Honiara in 1959.
	Table 4.2 Honiara’s gender profile: Melanesian population in 1970.
	Table 4.3 Age divisions in Honiara’s population, 1976 and 1986 (percentage).
	Table 4.4 Protectorate-born population by island, compared with Honiara’s protectorate-born Melanesian population, and the Melanesian male population, 1970.
	Table 5.1 The number of houses valued up to $6,000 (1975 prices) constructed in Honiara, 1969–1974.
	Table 5.2 The number of houses valued at more than $6,000 (1975 prices) constructed in Honiara, 1969–1974.
	Table 5.3 The number of houses constructed in Honiara, 1969–1974.
	Table 5.4 Housing Authority house models and prices at Mbua Valley, 1975.
	Table 5.5 Growth of settlements in Honiara, 1970–1979.
	Table 6.1 Population of Honiara: Ethnic groups, 1959 and 1965.
	Table 6.2 BSIP Medical Department, 1950, 1956, and 1962.
	Table 6.3 Solomon Islands airfields and their years of construction.
	Table 7.1 The numbers of Christian adherents in Solomon Islands and the percentages involved in the main Christian denominations in Honiara, 1970–2009.
	Table 9.1 Honiara demographic overview, 1959–2009.
	Table 9.2 Population of wards within Honiara, 1970–2009.
Acknowledgements
Acronyms and abbreviations
A note on nomenclature
Introduction
Nahona`ara before 1942
Taem blong faet: Camp Guadal
The new capital
The other Honiara
Municipal authority and housing
Building infrastructure
Building society and the nation
Stepping-stones to national consciousness
Since independence
The village-city
Bibliography
Index
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