Solomon Islands

Capital: Honiara
Airport: Henderson International (8km east of Honiara)
National Airline: Solomon Airlines
Visas: Not required for Australian passport holders for short stays
Population: 538,032 (2005 est)
Official language: English
Ethnic Groups: Melanesians (94.5%), Polynesians (3%) and others
Location: South Pacific Ocean (1,600km northeast of Australia)
Land size: 27,540km squares
Currency: Solomon Islands dollar
Currency Code: SBD
GDP: US$800 million (2002)
GDP per capita: US$1,700 (2002)

Brief Background Info: The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in the 1890s. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later in 1978. Ethnic violence and past government corruption has undermined its economic development and stability over the years. A multinational peacekeeping force, at the invitation of the Solomon Islands government, is currently in the Solomon Islands to help maintain law and order.

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I was in Port Moresby when the Fiji coup led by George Speight overthrew the Chaudhry government. That was on 19 May 2000. Less than a few weeks later, it was the Solomon Islands turn. Fuelled by ongoing ethnic tensions, the coup threatened to escalate into a civil war.

Click here to read about the history of the ethnic tension.

Click here for a BBC report on the coup.

I was doing some volunteer work with World Vision in Port Moresby around the time and I still remember the director and some of the World Vision senior staff holding meetings to discuss their next operational movements on Guadacanal island in the Solomons as the drama unfolded.


I also remember the feeling of unease that rippled across the expat community in Port Moresby. It seemed almost as if each of the South Pacific countries were one by one falling into political and civil turmoil, like that of a chain reaction. Would PNG be next in line? Some in the expat community and several political analysts were confident that PNG had a stable enough government to withstand any political and ethnic turmoil that had engulged its nearby Pacific neighbours. And they were right.

I had an uncle who had (and still has) business interests in the Solomon Islands at that time. And I remember hearing various evacuation stories being exchanged and retold around the dinner table between my father and other expatriates in Port Moresby. The Australian Navy sent in a ship while the NZ Air Force sent in its Hercules aircraft. The Malaysian and Philippine governments also sent in their military aircraft for the evacuation of its citizens while PNG informed its nationals to begin registering for evacuation.

Click here to read a BBC report on the ceasefire and evacuation of foreigners.

I thought at the time that that was it for the Solomon Islands. “There goes another Pacific island state down the gurgler.” I seriously wondered if the Solomon Islands was ever gonna recover from this and whether my uncle would ever return to Honiara again.

Well, five years later, I would find myself driving through Honiara in a 4WD, surprised at the recovery it has made. What made it even more astonishing was how safe the streets were. I felt safer in Honiara and as I travelled around the Solomon Islands than I ever did when I was in PNG. So what happened?

Well, back in July 2003, with the increasing breakdown of law and order and continuing ethnic conflict, the Solomon Islands government finally issued an official request for international help. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea responded by sending nearly 2,000 troops and 300 police. In August 2003, this international peacekeeping force known as the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and Operation Helpen Fren entered the Solomon Islands to restore peace and to disarm the ethnic militias. RAMSI has no doubt been effective in restoring law and order and in rebuilding the various government institutions in the last two years or so. RAMSI continues to be welcomed by many Solomon Islanders and their presence on the streets of Honiara certainly has made a big difference. Another spin-off from RAMSI, as with any long-term UN or multinational peacekeeping force that enters into a Third World country, is the boost to the economy, albeit ‘false’ economy, with the sudden surge in demand for imported goods. This was noticed by my sister who commented to me that the variety of supermarket food products and goods had significantly increased over the last two years since RAMSI came to the Solomon Islands.

Many Solomon Islanders are ‘migrants’ within their own country in one way or another. Being an archipelago consisting of several hundred islands, many Solomon Islanders I met along the way came from the various provinces, often travelling to the larger islands and urban centres in search of employment and/or supplies. As the BBC aptly puts it, the Solomon Islands is a beautiful but poor country. Being a poor country, the Solomon Islands government has also decided to give recognition to Taiwan in exchange for foreign investment and massive aid assistance. Although they weren't everywhere, I still saw more Taiwanese flags flying in Honiara than I did the Australian flag. EU presence in the capital (via its developmental agency arm) was also significant, much to my surprise.

However, with government stability, law and order restored, the economy is picking up again. Business optimism was high when I was in Honiara – at least that was the sense I got. And for this tiny capital without a single set of traffic lights whatsoever, this town was the last place on earth I’d expect to get stuck in a traffic jam. Peak hour traffic in Honiaral reminded me of peak hour traffic on Punt Road/Hoddle Street in Melbourne, albeit on a miniaturised scale (bearing in mind that Honiara has only one main road which runs from one end of the town to the airport at the other end). When I exclaimed to my sister who was in the 4WD with me, “What? A traffic jam – here in Honiara?”, she merely shrugged her shoulders, nodded her head and said, “Yep.”

Taking domestic flights within the Solomon Islands are also a bit of a hit and miss. Sometimes the plane simply fails to show up or has been known to leave even 30 minutes earlier! In my case, my flight to Gizo was delayed two times from 9am to 10am and then again to 11am. It eventually left at around 12:30pm. And it was just as well that I flew to Gizo instead of Seghe because I got to see the village on the way back to the capital on an inter-island passenger boat.

I had originally planned to fly to Seghe and then try my luck at finding this man at the village there about taking me to this eco-resort in the Marovo Lagoon (see photo on right). However, as I was booking the ticket at Solomon Airlines office, the airline agent thoughtfully explained to me, “If it rains in Seghe, the landing strip will be too muddy for the plane to land and you may get stuck in the middle of nowhere. My suggestion is to fly to somewhere else.” Given that I only had three days left to play around with before I had to get back to the capital in order to catch my flight out of the Solomon Islands – and there aren’t that many flights out of the Solomon Islands each week – there were just too many unknown factors to risk it.

Thus, I fully commiserated with the exasperated Solomon Airlines woman as she lamented to me, “Our tourist industry and transport infrastructure is not very good. We can get some international tourists into the capital but then we can’t get these people out to all the beautiful islands and resorts around the Solomon Islands.”

And so I opted to fly to Gizo instead, one of the more established tourist sites in the Solomons, particularly for its diving spots and WWII wrecks. And I had an absolute ball there. Apart from unashamedly self-inviting myself onto this island which houses a Dominican Order (see photo on left), I also nearly half-drowned when I snorkelled for the first time in the choppy sea around there – they were far more choppy than anywhere I’d ever snorkelled before. Gizo also provided, by far, the most interesting and memorable airport transfer I’ve ever experienced in all my travels – by boat. The airstrip took up the entire space on this small island opposite the Gizo township and had my light plane not stopped in time, we would all have landed in the water at the other end of the island.

Would I go back to the Solomon Islands again? Definitely. And if you ever get the opportunity to visit the Solomon Islands, it’s worth a visit. The people are friendly, genuine and it has beautiful lagoons and islands that are still yet to be exploited by tourists and also a lot of dive sites with WWII wrecks if you’re into diving. Just be prepared to fork out quite a bit of money for the airfare there. Return economy airfares alone from Melbourne to Honiara via Brisbane cost me about $1,600, flying Qantas and Solomon Airlines.