Wau

Gold was found in the Bulolo valley in the 1920s and Wau became the centre of the rush, at around eleven hundred metres in the Morobe highlands, and because there was no road the field was supplied entirely by air: Junkers aircraft flew in everything including dredges dismantled into pieces, in what the State Library of New South Wales describes as the leading air freight operation in the world in those years. The Wau airstrip ran uphill at a marked gradient, aircraft landing up and taking off down. The town declined as the gold went and is now much reduced, with the old buildings, the airstrip and small-scale mining continuing in the valley. The Wau Ecology Institute nearby holds forest and a small collection.

What to look for

• The uphill airstrip - the sloping strip that supplied the goldfield.
• The old town - the reduced settlement and its remaining buildings.
• The Bulolo valley - the dredged ground and continuing small-scale mining.
• The Ecology Institute - the forest station and its collection.

When to go

May to October in the drier season; the road from Lae through Bulolo is rough and worse in the wet months. The highlands here are cooler than the coast.

Good to know

The town has declined a great deal and there is little visitor provision. The road in is long and rough. The Ecology Institute has been through periods of closure. Arrangements should be made in Lae.

Nearby

Bulolo lies north; Lae is northeast down the valley.

Key facts