Travel Guide Moindou

Founded in 1874 by Alsatians and Lorrainers fleeing the provisions of the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt, Moindou(Mwâhruu in Kanak) is the place where a coal deposit was discovered in the late 19th century. A briquette factory was installed there and operated between 1902 and 1930. A railroad and a wharf were built at the same time, but the production costs were too high and the factory had to be closed. Today, the local population (709 inhabitants) lives mainly from the shrimp trade. The Sodacal farm is the largest in the area. Coming from La Foa on the RT1, you will notice on your right, after the river, the ruins of a women's agricultural penitentiary known as the Fonwhary prison, then the Fonwhary college, when it was transformed into a boarding school for convicts' daughters at the end of the 19th century. The delimitation of these lands was at the center of Kanak claims during the 1878 uprising. Fort Téremba also bears witness to this very turbulent past.