Atauro Island (also
Pulau Atauro,
Ata'uro) is a small island situated 25km north of
DiliDili , spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Dili is the chief port and commercial centre for East Timor, and has approximately 150,000 inhabitants...
,
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, on the extinct Wetar segment of the
volcanic3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
Inner Banda Arc, between the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n islands of
AlorAlor is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago located at the eastern-most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands that runs through southern Indonesia, which from the west include such islands as Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores....
and
WetarThe tropical island Wetar belongs to the Indonesian province Maluku and is the largest island of the Barat Daya Islands . It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which include nearby Alor and Timor, but it is politically part of the Maluku Islands. To the south, across the Wetar Strait, lies the...
. Politically it comprises one of the subdistricts of the Dili District of East Timor. It is about 25 km long and 9 km wide, about 105 km² in area, and is inhabited by about 8000 people.
The name means 'goat' in the local language, and it is also known as
Kambing Island (
Pulau Kambing) by the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
ns (
Kambing means 'goat' in
IndonesianIndonesian is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Classical Malay of the Riau-Johor Sultanate. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the...
).
Atauro Island (also
Pulau Atauro,
Ata'uro) is a small island situated 25km north of
DiliDili , spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Dili is the chief port and commercial centre for East Timor, and has approximately 150,000 inhabitants...
,
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, on the extinct Wetar segment of the
volcanic3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
Inner Banda Arc, between the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n islands of
AlorAlor is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago located at the eastern-most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands that runs through southern Indonesia, which from the west include such islands as Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores....
and
WetarThe tropical island Wetar belongs to the Indonesian province Maluku and is the largest island of the Barat Daya Islands . It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which include nearby Alor and Timor, but it is politically part of the Maluku Islands. To the south, across the Wetar Strait, lies the...
. Politically it comprises one of the subdistricts of the Dili District of East Timor. It is about 25 km long and 9 km wide, about 105 km² in area, and is inhabited by about 8000 people.
Name
The name means 'goat' in the local language, and it is also known as
Kambing Island (
Pulau Kambing) by the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
ns (
Kambing means 'goat' in
IndonesianIndonesian is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Classical Malay of the Riau-Johor Sultanate. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the...
). It was so named because of the large number of goats kept there.
Disambiguation
Atauro is also the name of a vessel in the Timor Leste Defence Force.
[See:
East Timorese patrol boat AtauroThe East Timorese patrol boat Atauro is one of the two Albatroz class patrol boats operated by the Timor Leste Defence Force. She was built in the mid-1970s for the Portuguese Navy and was commissioned on 9 December 1974 as NRP Açor . She was donated to East Timor in January 2002 and was renamed....
.]
Geography
The island is separated into 5 districts, each surrounding a village: Bikeli and Beloi in the north, Macadade (formerly Anartutu) in the southwest, and Makili and Vila (formerly Maumeta) in the southeast. The largest town is Vila. Other major towns include Pala, Uaroana, Arlo, Adara, and Berau. One
bitumenBitumen is a mixture of organic liquids that are highly viscous, black, sticky, entirely soluble in carbon disulfide, and composed primarily of highly condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons....
road connects Vila to Pala, with walking paths to the other villages on the island. There is an airstrip (IATA designation: AUT (WPAT)).
Mt. Manucoco is the highest point at 995m above
sea levelMean sea level is the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation.- Measurement :...
. The ocean strait between Atauro and Timor drops 3500m below sea level; conversely, it is much shallower along the ridge leading to Wetar. Geologists from Melbourne University are working together with the East Timor Energy Minerals and Resources Directorate (EMRD) and the Polytechnical Institute of Dili to make the first geological map of the island, in part to improve the infrastructure of the island.
http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_2387.html
Atauro is a small and unstable island with a rugged landscape, frequented by
landslideA landslide is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rock falls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...
s and a shortage of
fresh waterFresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
, especially during the drier months. Fresh water
springA spring is any natural occurrence where water flows on to the surface of the earth from below the surface, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface.- Formation :...
s are present approximately 2km north of Berau, with minor reservoirs around Macadade, and the eastern slopes of Mt. Manucoco.
WellA water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
s along the coast provide water of poor quality to most coastal townships.
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
is funding a new project to improve the availability of water and its distribution infrastructure.
http://www.etan.org/et2004/november/22/23lisbon.htm
Atauro has two distinct seasons -
wetThe wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics...
and
dryThe dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
.
VegetationVegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
consists of open
Eucalyptus sp. woodland, representative of its
AustralasiaAustralasia is a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes . He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the...
n affinities, on open slopes and hillsides commonly where
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
s outcrop.
RainforestRainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests.From 40 to 75%...
is present within valleys. The island has suffered from extensive clearing since
PortuguesePortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
settlement in the early 16th century.
A ferry connects the island to the capital
DiliDili , spelled Díli in Portuguese, is the capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Dili is the chief port and commercial centre for East Timor, and has approximately 150,000 inhabitants...
, which takes about two hours. It can also be reached by fisherman's boats. Atauro is also being considered as a destination for eco-tourism, and its coral reefs are becoming known to
scubaScuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater for recreation, commercial or industrial reasons.Unlike early diving, which relied exclusively on air pumped from the surface, scuba...
enthusiasts.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Asia/Ethical-tourism-on-an-untouched-island/2005/04/16/1113509964786.html
Culture
Atauro is unusual in East Timor because many of the northern inhabitants are Protestants, not
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
s. They were evangelized by a Dutch Calvinist mission from
AlorAlor is the largest island in the Alor Archipelago located at the eastern-most end of the Lesser Sunda Islands that runs through southern Indonesia, which from the west include such islands as Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Komodo, and Flores....
in the early 20th century. There are also some Protestants among the southern population, as well.
The people of Atauro speak three dialects of
WetareseWetarese is the language of Wetar, an island in the south Moluccas, Indonesia, as well as the nearby islands Liran and Atauro, the latter belonging to East Timor....
, which is mainly spoken on
WetarThe tropical island Wetar belongs to the Indonesian province Maluku and is the largest island of the Barat Daya Islands . It lies east of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which include nearby Alor and Timor, but it is politically part of the Maluku Islands. To the south, across the Wetar Strait, lies the...
and
LiranLiran Island is a small island off the southwest coast of Wetar Island, Indonesia. To the southwest is the East Timorese island Atauro. It is one of the westernmost of the Barat Daya Islands in the province of Maluku.It is surrounded by coral reefs....
in
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
.
History
- See also: History of East Timor
East Timor is a small country in Southeast Asia, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco. The first inhabitants are thought to be descendant of Australoid and Melanesian peoples...
Atauro was colonized along with East Timor by
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
in the 16th century. It was used as a
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
island soon after the settlement of the Portuguese.
In
Portuguese TimorPortuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....
, Atauro was organized as part of the Dili municipality, coinciding with modern Dili District. When East Timor became independent, there was a proposal to reorganize the districts and split off Atauro as an autonomous area. However, that has not been put into effect, and it remains a
subdistrictThe districts of East Timor are divided into 65 subdistricts, with one designated as the capital. The subdistricts are listed below, by district:-Aileu District:*Aileu *Laulara*Lequidoe*Remexio-Ainaro District:*Ainaro *Hatudo...
of Dili District.
On August 11, 1975, when the
UDTThe Timorese Democratic Union is a conservative political party in East Timor. It was the first party to be established in the country in 1974, following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal....
mounted a coup in a bid to halt the increasing popularity of Fretilin, the Portuguese Governor
Mário Lemos PiresMário Lemos Pires was the last Portuguese governor of Portuguese Timor.-Historical background to governorship:Pires served from November 18, 1974 to November 27, 1975, but the administration was forced onto Atauro Island for the last three months of Portuguese rule following the UDT coup in...
fled to Atauro, from where he later attempted to broker an agreement between the two groups. He was urged by Fretilin to return and resume the decolonisation process, but he insisted that he was awaiting instructions from the government in Lisbon, then increasingly uninterested. The chaos ultimately led to the
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n occupation. The island became part of independent East Timor on May 20, 2002.
External links