British New Guinea

British New Guinea (BNG) was a protectorate and later Crown colony within the British Empire from 1884 to 1902. It comprised the south-eastern portion of the island of New Guinea, largely corresponding to the southern portion of present-day Papua New Guinea, and bordered Dutch New Guinea to the west and German New Guinea to the north.

A British protectorate was proclaimed over the south-eastern coast of New Guinea in 1884, in response to agitation from the self-governing Australian colonies to the south – notably the abortive annexation of East New Guinea by the colony of Queensland in 1883 – and to the establishment of German New Guinea. Initially falling under the authority of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, the entirety of the south-east was formally annexed in 1888 and placed under an administrator (later designated as a lieutenant-governor).

British New Guinea held an unusual status within the Empire in that it was legally subordinate to Queensland. Funding for its administration was wholly provided by Queensland and the other Australian colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, which viewed the territory as strategically and commercially significant. Following the federation of the Australian colonies, in 1902 the British government transferred the administration of the colony to the new Australian federal government. It was formally reorganised in 1906 as the Territory of Papua and remained under Australian administration until the independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975.