Goodenough Bay

Goodenough Bay is a large bay on the northern coast of the Papuan Peninsula, in the southeast of the Papua New Guinean mainland. Located in Milne Bay Province, it spans roughly 40 kilometres (25 mi) by 37 kilometres (23 mi), with a coastline running from the eastern tip of Cape Vogel to a prominent headland called Cape Frere. It forms part of the Solomon Sea, within the south Pacific Ocean. The northern coast along Cape Vogel is hilly, while the southern coast along the main Papuan peninsula is steeper and connects inland to the Owen Stanley Range. The waters of the bay are deep, with few areas ships can easily anchor, although coastal areas contain a few coral reefs.

The bay lies along an active fault line, and likely formed during the Pliocene when what are now the D'Entrecasteaux Islands were pushed apart from mainland New Guinea. The area remains tectonically active. The local communities living around the bay speak a variety of different and sometimes largely unrelated Austronesian languages. The first European to survey the area was John Moresby, who named the bay after James Graham Goodenough. An Anglican mission was established at Dogura in 1891. In the Second World War the bay saw conflict during the New Guinea campaign, particularly around the Battle of Milne Bay.