Normanby Island is a volcanic, 400 square mile (1,000 square km), L-shaped island, the southern most island in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands

D'Entrecasteaux Islands

D'Entrecasteaux Islands are situated near the eastern tip of New Guinea in the Solomon Sea in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The group spans a distance of 160 km, has a total land area of approximately 3,100 km² and is separated from the Papua New Guinea mainland by the...

 group. It is part of Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,000 km² of land and 252,990 km² of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited...

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially 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...

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Normanby Island is 10 miles (16 km) north-east of East Cape, on the island of New Guinea, separated by Goschen Strait, and is separated by the Dawson Strait (Dobu Passage) from Fergusson Island

Fergusson Island

Fergusson Island is the largest island of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, in Papua New Guinea. It has an area of just over 500 square miles , and mostly consists of mountainous regions, covered by rain forests...

. The island rises to 3,800 feet (1,158 metres) in the Prevost Range in the southeast. The terrain includes low coastal plains and swamplands, high mountains and steep coastal slopes. Sewa Bay provides shelter on the west coast and Awaiara (Sewataitai) Bay on the east coast. The largest settlement, and district headquarters, is Esa’ala at the island’s northern end.

In 1873, the island was visited by British Captain John Moresby

John Moresby

Captain John Moresby was a British Naval Officer who explored the coast of New Guinea and discovered the site of Port Moresby.Moresby was born in Allerford, Somerset, England, the son of Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby...

, commanding HMS Basilisk

HMS Basilisk (1848)

HMS Basilisk was a first-class paddle sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the Woolwich Dockyard and launched on 22 August 1848.-Propulsion trials:She participated in 1849 in trials in the English Channel with the screw sloop HMS Niger...

, who named it after the Marquess of Normanby

Marquess of Normanby

Marquess of Normanby is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.The first creation came in 1694 in the Peerage of England in favour of John Sheffield, 3rd Earl of Mulgrave KG...

, George Augustus Constantine Phipps

George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby

George Augustus Constantine Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, GCB, GCMG, PC , styled Viscount Normanby between 1831 and 1838 and Earl of Mulgrave between 1838 and 1863, was a British Liberal politician and colonial governor.-Background:Normanby was born in London, the son of Constantine Phipps, 1st...

, a governor of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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Once known to produce gold, Normanby now exports copra and some timber. Recent discoveries of gold deposits are beginning to be exploited.