Yule Island is a small island in Central Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located NW from Port Moresby, on the south coast of Papua New Guinea.
History
Yule Island was probably named after Charles Bampfield Yule, a Royal Navy officer who surveyed the area from 1842 to 1845.Quanchi, Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, page 251 It was one of the first areas in Central Province to have contact with Europeans. The Catholic Missionaries of the Sacred Heart began a mission in 1885. The mission was successfully led from 1900 to 1908 by Bishop Henry Verius and from then until 1945 by Alain de Boismenu.R. Tamamai, Yule Island's pioneer Bishop de Boismenu on the path to sainthood , PNG Attitude, 26 Apr 2014.
With the European missionaries came catechists from the Philippines, some of which married into the local population. Today, many inhabitants of Yule Island have distinct European and Filipino features.Hernandez
The visit of Australian poet James McAuley to the mission at Yule Island in 1949 made a profound spiritual impression on him and contributed to his conversion to Catholicism.
Fauna Yule Island is surrounded by coral reefs.Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority
Several spider species are endemic to this island, including:World Spider Catalog The jumping spider species Salticus perogaster and Plexippus brachypus Heteropoda cyanognatha and Pandercetes longipes (Sparassidae) Misumena arrogans and Stephanopis yulensis (Thomisidae)
The Early Pliocene Echinodermata fauna is rich and diverse, with 19 species known to occur in the Kairuku Formation. Nearly half of these species are also represented in northern Australia stocks, with the northern Great Barrier Reef only away.nomen nudum 28: report 2001-2002
Notable people Susan Karike - designer of the flag of Papua New Guinea Louis-André Navarre - Missionary of the Sacred Heart and Archbishop, worked on the island and, following his death and burial in Townsville, was exhumed and reburied on the island
References
Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority: Central Province (2007): The world spider catalog, version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History.
Further reading
(2003): Echinoids of the Kairuku Formation (Lower Pliocene), Yule Island, Papua New Guinea: Clypeasteroida. Regularia. Spatangoida. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 124: 125–162. (2004): The Yule Island fauna and the origin of tropical northern Australian echinoid (Echinodermata) faunas. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 125: 97-109.