Tolokiwa Island

The earliest known sighting of the island by outsiders was by William Dampier, an English explorer, privateer, navigator, and naturalist. He sailed past Long Island and Tolikawa Island in 1700 and drew profiles in his log book.^[3]

Tolokiwa Island is situated 75 km north of the New Guinea mainland. The island has a diameter of 7 km and an area of 46 km². Its highest point in the Sulany peak at 1372 metres. The island was built up by a series of volcanic eruptions during the Pleistocene epoch.^[4] The well-vegetated^[5] island is an important natural site for birds,^[6] and is home to several species of resident birds (which it unusually shares with nearby islands). However, these may not be birds indigenous to the island as it is believed that wildlife would have been wiped out by a volcanic eruption on Long Island in the mid 17th-century.^[3][7] Tolokiwa is also home to a subspecies of Turdus Poliocephalus, the Tasman Sea island thrush.^[8]

The island sustained damage during the 13 March 1888 eruption of nearby Ritter Island, which caused a tsunami to hit Tolokiwa and other islands as well as the north coast of New Guinea.^[9]