BOTANICAL GARDENS

Created by the botanist John S. Womersley in 1949, this large park was once named "Ville Jardin". In the 1970 s, this park was considered the most beautiful in the South Pacific. But in the years following independence, the budgets allocated to its maintenance melted as snow in the sun (tropical). The garden was almost abandoned in the 2000 s, but an ambitious restoration program was launched in 2014. Thanks to many private support, the park seems to be taking over today. We walk through beautiful trees while admiring its collections of orchids, beegas and tarots. Clou of the visit, the magnificent DC -3 of the RAAF exposed in the garden, to recall the heavy tribe paid by the Australian forces to resume the city during the Second World War. While this transport aircraft did not properly fight during the conflict, it was used in several liaison missions during the 1960-1970 s, mainly in Vietnam. In 1980 it was acquired by Papua New Guinea for the training missions of the Papua Air Force. In 1999, it was definitively decommissioned. A beautiful testimony to the history of aviation in the South Pacific.