Gasmata is a village on the southern coast of New Britain, Papua New Guinea located at 6° 16' 60S 150° 19' 60E. There is a Gasmata Airport in Surumi Peninsula area adjacent. The village is administered under Gasmata Rural LLG in East New Britain Province.[1]
The Imperial Japanese occupied the village between 8–9 February 1942 during World War II. A war crime occurred in March 1942 when between eight and ten Australian prisoners of war were executed by firing squad by being shot in the back.[2]
Gasmata was re-occupied by an Australian Army unit on 28 March 1944.
Gasmata has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round and with extremely heavy rainfall from June to August. Unlike many places in Papua New Guinea, Gasmata and the southern coast of New Britain experience a rainfall maximum during the south-east monsoon (low sun season) because the New Britain mountains block the north-westerly winds during the high sun season.
Climate data for Gasmata | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.1 (88.0) |
30.7 (87.3) |
30.8 (87.4) |
30.4 (86.7) |
29.8 (85.6) |
29.7 (85.5) |
28.4 (83.1) |
28.7 (83.7) |
29.7 (85.5) |
29.8 (85.6) |
30.6 (87.1) |
30.7 (87.3) |
30.0 (86.1) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 27.1 (80.8) |
27.0 (80.6) |
26.9 (80.4) |
26.6 (79.9) |
26.4 (79.5) |
26.3 (79.3) |
25.5 (77.9) |
25.6 (78.1) |
26.2 (79.2) |
26.4 (79.5) |
26.8 (80.2) |
26.9 (80.4) |
26.5 (79.7) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 23.2 (73.8) |
23.3 (73.9) |
23.1 (73.6) |
22.8 (73.0) |
23.1 (73.6) |
22.9 (73.2) |
22.6 (72.7) |
22.5 (72.5) |
22.7 (72.9) |
23.0 (73.4) |
23.0 (73.4) |
23.1 (73.6) |
22.9 (73.3) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 179 (7.0) |
156 (6.1) |
212 (8.3) |
269 (10.6) |
478 (18.8) |
655 (25.8) |
844 (33.2) |
809 (31.9) |
493 (19.4) |
350 (13.8) |
226 (8.9) |
184 (7.2) |
4,855 (191) |
Source: Climate-Data.org[3] |
6°17′S 150°20′E / 6.283°S 150.333°E