PURARI RIVER

river that rises on the southern slopes of the Bismarck Range of the central highlands, Papua New Guinea, and flows southwest and south for some 290 miles (470 km) to the Gulf of Papua of the Coral Sea, southwestern Pacific Ocean (the second longest stream to do so after the Fly). In the highlands the Purari, fed by its principal headstreams, the Erave, Kangel, and Tua rivers, flows through gorges and densely populated areas, including the towns of Gurimatu and Wabo. Its middle course crosses a forested coastal plain. In its lowest 25 miles (40 km) the stream subdivides into five main channels, which lace through a well-settled 1,000-square-mile (2,600-square-kilometre) swampy delta. The river empties into the Orokolo Bay of the Gulf of Papua. It is navigable for approximately 120 miles (190 km) above the mouths. Although found and partially charted by the British explorer Theodore Bevan in 1887, the river system was not fully traced until the 1930s.