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Nouméa, or Noumea, is the capital city of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grand Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Indonesian, Tahitian and Vietnamese population, as well as many native Kanaks that work in one of the South Pacific's most industrialised cities.
The area in which the city is found was not an important one for Kanaks prior to European settlement; the first European to set up a settlement nearby was a British trader, James Paddon, in 1851. The French, anxious to assert control of the island, established a settlement there three years later in 1854, moving from the north of the island (the settlement of Balade). The area served first as a penal colony, later as a centre for the exploitation of the nickel and gold that was mined nearby. It served at the headquarters of the United States military in the Pacific during World War II.
The US military headquarters - a pentagonal complex - was, after the war, taken over as the base for a new regional intergovernmental development organisation: the South Pacific Commission. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community, as it was later known, has become a "mini-United Nations of the South Pacific" in the words of the former President of Vanuatu, Ati George Sokomanu, with the additional distinction of allowing island territories equal status and voting rights with independent countries in its governing council.
Even today the US wartime military influence lingers, both in the warmth that many Kanak people feel towards the USA after experiencing the relative friendliness of American soldiers, and also in the names of several of the quartiers in Noumea. Districts such as "Receiving" and "Robinson", or even "Motor Pool", strike the anglophone ear strangely, until the historical context becomes clear.
Noumea, the city, is the most "westernised" in the Pacific Islands region, with the exception of Hagåtña, Guam, and is a complete contrast to the rest of New Caledonia's wide open spaces, bare jagged hills, and largely indigenous population. Although Noumea probably has the "best" climate in the South Pacific, with more sunshine days than any other Pacific Island capital, and some excellent beaches not far from the city centre, it is not currently a major tourist destination. The cost of living is high, and there is no cheap air-travel from the Pacific Rim. Noumea's international airport is at Tontouta, 50 kilometres from the city, although there is an airport within the city, Magenta, which services local routes. However, for those who love boardsailing, Noumea is well worth the additional expense. Along with its high number of sunshine-days comes a brisk breeze, at least by comparison with other Pacific Islands.
Noumea is currently one of the most rapidly-growing cities in the Pacific, and has experienced a major housing construction boom within the past decade. Despite this rapid growth, the installation of amenities has kept pace, and the municipality boasts an impressive public works programme. Much of this construction is apparently fuelled by investment from France. It is the hope of the government that this investment, over the lifetime of the multi-decadal track towards increasing autonomy planned under the Matignon and now the Noumea Accords, will eventually become fully sustainable. (Amongst the Francophone development intelligentsia there is some criticism of the way in which the British withdrew so rapidly from their colonies in Asia, Africa and the Pacific, without first ensuring that the new countries thus created could "stand on their own two feet" economically and politically).
External links
- "France's Best Kept Secret" (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rodeime/newcal/) by Roderick Eime
- Tourism New Caledonia (South) (http://www.newcaledoniatourism-south.com/)
- Zeal.com's Noumea (http://www.zeal.com/category/preview.jhtml?cid=10187244)
- Noumea's official municipal website (http://www.ville-noumea.nc/vivre/default.asp) (in French)
- Nouméa: Commune Française du Bout du Monde (http://www.ac-noumea.nc/laperouse/site-hg/site/) - an exceptionally well-realised school project on the geography and history of Noumea (in French)