Fly River
|
Location of the Fly river |
The
Fly is the longest river of the island of
New Guinea. (Although the
Sepik also claims to be the longest) The first European exploration was in 1845 by
Captain Blackwood in the
British naval ship the
Fly after which the river is named. It rises in the
Star Mountains, and crosses the southwestern lowlands before reaching the
Gulf of Papua in a large estuary. The Fly has a length of 1050 km; it flows through
Papua New Guinea except for a small stretch where it forms the boundary between Papua New Guinea and
Indonesia. This section is the only part of the Papua New Guinea/Indonesia border which is not on the 141°E longitude line, thus giving Papua New Guinea a small area to the west of this line.
The principal tributaries of the Fly are the
Strickland and the
Ok Tedi. The source of one of the worst
environmental disasters in the world, the
Ok Tedi Mine, is located near the headwaters of the Ok Tedi.
