The population of Banaba in the 2010 census was 295. Some islanders subsequently returned, following the end of mining in 1979 approximately 300 were living on the island in 2001. Īfter 1945, the British authorities relocated most of the population to Rabi Island, Fiji, with subsequent waves of emigration in 1977, and from 1981 to 1983. In June 1948, about 1,100 Gilbertese employed on Ocean Island refused to work, with the key demand of the strikers was for higher wages of £10 a month to meet the increased price of goods sold in the trade store. The mining of the phosphate rock for fertiliser, which was carried out from 1900 to 1979, stripped away 90 per cent of the island's surface, the same process which occurred on Nauru from 1907 to the 1980s. In 1919, the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand took over the operations of the Pacific Phosphate Company. In 1913, an anonymous correspondent to The New Age criticised the operation of the PPC under the title "Modern buccaneers in the West Pacific". The Pacific Phosphate Company (PPC) built the Ocean Island Railway and mined phosphate from 1900 to 1919. The terms of the licences were changed to provide for the payment of royalties and compensation for mining damage, amounting to less than 0.1% of the profits the PIC made during its first 13 years. The agreement made with the Banabans was for the exclusive right to mine for 999 years for £50 a year. Arundel, identified that the petrified guano on Banaba consisted of high-grade phosphate rock. The Pacific Islands Company, under John T. Phosphate mining įurther information: Phosphate mining in Banaba and Nauru A three-year drought starting in 1873 killed more than three-quarters of the population and wiped out almost all of the trees many of those who survived left the island on passing ships to escape the drought, and only some were able to return, often years later. The traditional source of water was a cave in which fresh water collected. īanaba is prone to drought, as it is a high island with no natural streams and no water lens. The last known visit was by the Charles W. The first recorded visit was by the Arabella in March 1832. Whaling vessels often visited the island in the nineteenth century for water and wood. Then in 1804, Captain John Mertho of the convict transport and merchant ship Ocean sighted the island and named it after his vessel. Captain Jared Gardner of the American vessel Diana sighted the island. The first known sighting of Banaba by Europeans occurred on 3 January 1801. Map of Banaba at the time of phosphate mining Village The local capital was Tabiang, now called Antereen. Prior to the relocation of its inhabitants at the end of World War II, there were four villages on the island: Ooma (Uma), Tabiang, Tapiwa (Tabwewa) and Buakonikai. The Banabans were assimilated only through forced migrations and the heavy impact of the discovery of phosphate in 1900. Sigrah makes also the controversial (and politically loaded) assertion that Banabans are ethnically distinct from other I-Kiribati. The name Banaba in the local Gilbertese language is correctly spelled Bwanaba, but the Constitution of Kiribati (12 July 1979) writes Banaba, meaning "hollow land". 1.2 World War II and Japanese occupationĪccording to Te Rii ni Banaba-The Backbone of Banaba by Raobeia Ken Sigrah, Banaban oral history supports the claim that the people of the Te Aka clan, which originated in Melanesia, were the original inhabitants of Banaba (Ocean Island), having arrived before the arrival of later migrations from the East Indies and Kiribati.