MUYUA

also called Woodlark Island, coral island of Papua New Guinea, situated approximately 150 miles (240 km) northeast of the southeasternmost point of the island of New Guinea, Solomon Sea, southwestern Pacific. Muyua measures about 44 miles by 518 miles (70 km by 829 km). Its rough surface of raised coral pinnacles (rising to 1,200 feet in the south) is covered by dense jungle growth. The major anchorages, along the south coast, are Guasopa and Suloga harbours; here also is Kolumadau, the principal settlement. Gold was mined on Muyua from 1934 to 1938, but mining has not resumed since the end of World War II, during which the island was an Allied air base; there are outcrops of ironstone containing magnetite ore. The island is sometimes called Woodlark after the Australian ship Woodlark, which anchored there in 1836. Pop. (1980 prelim.) 3,811.