page_title: Bougainville Island
hierarchical_section_title: Bougainville Island
caption_attribution_description: English: Bougainville and Buka, or the North Solomons, Melanesia.
context_page_description: Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea, also known as Bougainville Province. It formed the main landmass of the German Empire-associated North Solomons. With four to five hundred-metre-width-strait separated Buka Island its land measures 9,300 km². The population of the province is 234,280, which includes islets such as the Carterets. Mount Balbi on the main island at 2,715 m is the highest point. The Buka strait, despite its narrowness, is unbridged; however, regular ferries operate between the key settlements on either side and Buka Town has the main northern airstrip/airport.
  It is the largest of the Solomon Islands archipelago, most of which, concentrated south and east, are politically independent as the Solomon Islands; from two of these in the close-knit Shortland Islands it is less than 9 km north or north-west to Bougainville; they are in turn about 30 km west of Choiseul, a settlement of which, Poroporo, faces Bougainville.
  An outcrop of Buka is 175 kilometres from New Ireland, the next grand island of Papua New Guinea.
context_section_description: Bougainville Island (Tok Pisin: Bogenvil) is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea, also known as Bougainville Province. It formed the main landmass of the German Empire-associated North Solomons. With four to five hundred-metre-width-strait separated Buka Island (c.500 km²) its land measures 9,300 km² (3591 sq miles). The population of the province is 234,280 (2011 census), which includes islets such as the Carterets. Mount Balbi on the main island at 2,715 m is the highest point.  The Buka strait, despite its narrowness, is unbridged; however, regular ferries operate between the key settlements on either side and Buka Town has the main northern airstrip/airport.
  It is the largest of the Solomon Islands archipelago, most of which, concentrated south and east, are politically independent as the Solomon Islands; from two of these in the close-knit Shortland Islands it is less than 9 km north or north-west to Bougainville; they are in turn about 30 km west of Choiseul, a settlement of which, Poroporo, faces Bougainville.
  An outcrop of Buka is 175 kilometres (109 mi) from New Ireland, the next grand island of Papua New Guinea.
caption: Bougainville and neighbouring islands
exif: {}