25 Mar 2025

Birding and History in Bougainville

Our Western and Grand Pacific Odyssey adventure saw us arrive at the autonomous region of Bougainville.

Thanks to the Bougainville officials meeting us at sea in the dark, the WPO team was ashore at dawn and drove 20 kilometres up the road to the abandoned Rio Tinto Copper Mine. We alighted amidst cloud forest on the island’s spine at 1000 metres and walked down the road. We were entertained by numerous orchids, spiders and insects, and the elusive Odedi (Bougainville Bush Warbler), and gradually accumulated a reasonable list of species, including Red-capped Myzomela, white-eyes, several monarchs and fruit doves. Further down the road observed an obliging pair of Bougainville Crows. 

While those on the WPO were busy birding, the adventurers on GPO spent time learning the history of the Panguna Mine and exploring the surrounding area.

Bougainville Island has a tumultuous history, not only as a battleground during WWII but also because of the prolonged Bougainville Civil War which arose because of the actions of the Rio Tinto Mining company, at a mine called the Panguna Copper Mine, our destination this morning.

The metal framework for the old buildings had been scavenged by locals, and the general area was inhabited by simple houses. The entire area was covered in scrubby regrowth decorated by flowering Bamboo Orchids with their bright pink flowers everywhere. We then visited an area overlooking the polluted river below the mine, where the locals have been fighting Rio Tinto Mining Company since the mid-1980s. Finally, we drove to the pit edge and looked down into the vast pit of the old Panguna Copper Mine. This mine represents one of the largest copper reserves in Papua New Guinea, (and in the world), having an estimated reserve of one billion tonnes of ore copper, and twelve million ounces of gold. Officially, the mine has been closed since 1989. However, scattered below us were over two hundred subsistence gold mining claims, established by the locals.

We returned to the Heritage Adventurer for a late lunch, sailing out of the lagoon and west along the north shore of Bougainville. The sea was alive with feeding groups of tunas, attended by wheeling frigates and terns, and there were several distant groups of Pilot Whales. In the afternoon, the first Heinroth’s Shearwaters was seen in one of the feeding groups, causing many to flock to the decks. Over the next few hours, we saw at least 30 individuals foraging or heading southwest towards Bougainville. Other highlights included a Beck’s Petrel and a large pod of False Killer and Melon-headed Whales. 

Images © C. Finch & O. Thomas, Heritage Expeditions