Fly River

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Fly
NASA Blue Marble satellite image of the Fly River
Countries	Papua New Guinea, Indonesia
Length	1,050 km (650 mi) approx.
Source
- location	Star Mountains, Papua New Guinea
Mouth
- location	Gulf of Papua, Papua New Guinea
Major tributaries
- left	Strickland River
- right	Ok Tedi River
Location of the Fly

This article is about the river. For other uses, see Fly (disambiguation).

The Fly at 1,050 kilometres (650 mi), is the second longest river, after the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea. It rises in the Star Mountains, and crosses the south-western lowlands before flowing into the Gulf of Papua in a large delta.

It flows mostly through the Western Province, though for a small stretch it forms the boundary between PNG and the Indonesia province of Papua. This section protrudes slightly to the west of the 141°E longitude line. To compensate for this slight gain in territory for PNG, the border south of the Fly River is slightly east of the 141°E longitude line. As part of this deal, Indonesia has the right to use the Fly River to its mouth for navigation.

The principal tributaries of the Fly are the Strickland and the Ok Tedi. Both these rivers have been the source of environmental controversy due to tailings waste from the Porgera Mine and the Ok Tedi Mine respectively.

[edit] History

The original survey map created by L.M. D'Albertis in 1876

The Fly was first discovered by Europeans in 1842 when Francis Blackwood commanding the corvette HMS Fly, surveryed the western coast of the Gulf of Papua.^[1] The river was named after his ship and he proclaimed that it would be possible for a small steam powered boat to travel up the mighty river.^[2]

In 1876 Italian explorer, Luigi D'Albertis, was the first person to successfully attempt this when he travelled 900 km into the interior of New Guinea, in his steamer, Neva. It was the furthest any explorer had ever been into the island.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Blackwood, Francis Price (1809 - 1854). Australian Dictionary of Biography.
^ ^a ^b Lightbody, Mark; Wheeler, Tony (1985). Papua New Guinea: a travel survival guide, 3, Lonely Planet, p. 172. ISBN 0-908086-59-8.