Heritage Expeditions

Geographical information:

21º 30’S , 165º 30’E

Area:

7,172 Sq Miles

Maximum Altitude:

Mt Panie 1628 Metres (5341ft)

Physical Features:

New Caledonia is an ancient fragment of the Gondwana super continent. New Caledonia and New Zealand separated from Australia 85 Million years ago and from one another 55 million years ago. New Caledonia is made up of a main island, Grande Terre and several smaller islands.

Historical Features:

The diverse group of people that settled over the Melanesian archipelagos are known as Lapita, they were highly skilled navigators and agriculturists. They arrived in New Caledonia and Loyalty Islands around 1500BC.

Capt. James Cook was the first European to sight Grande Terre in 1774 and he named it New Caledonia after the Scottish Highlands.

British and North American whalers and sandal wood traders became interested in New Caledonia. Contact brought new diseases and many people died as a result of these diseases. Tensions developed into hostilities. As trade in sandalwood declined, it was replaced by “Blackbirding” which involved enslaving native people to work in sugar cane plantations in Fiji and Queensland.

The Islands were made a French Possession in 1853 in an attempt by Napoleon III to rival the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. France sent a total of 22,000 convicted felons to penal colonies on the Islands.

The Matignon Accord signed after the bloody uprising of 1988 provides for local Caledonian citizenship as well as mandating a referendum on the contentious issue of independence from the French Republic sometime after 2014.

Flora and Vegetation:

New Caledonia has many unique and endemic plants and animals of Gondwanan origin.  The Islands make up two terrestrial eco regions, the New Caledonian rain forests on the Loyalty Islands, Iles des Pines, and the eastern side of Grande Terre, and the New Caledonia dry forests in the rain shadow on the western side of Grand Terre.

Wildlife:

There are no native amphibians, only three snakes (none of which live on Grande Terre), and only nine mammals species, all of which are bats. The birds of New Caledonia consist mainly of modern forms. However, one ancient family, Rynochetidae, is endemic to New Caledonia and is currently represented by one species, the kagu (Rhynochetos jubatus). The kagu is listed as endangered (EN), along with the Australasian bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus), New Caledonian lorikeet (Charmosyna diadema), and New Caledonian owlet-nightjar (Aegotheles savesi). The most precarious existence, however, may belong to the New Caledonian rail (Gallirallus lafresnayanus). Five other species are vulnerable to extinction. A total of seven birds are endemic to the eco region, but there are twenty-four near endemics. 

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