Dawapia Rocks

The Beehives, [Dawapia Rocks], Cone, 4.23°S, 152.17°E.

"Beehives" in Blanche Bay (New Britain, Papua New Guinea) (watercolour by Joachim Graf Pfeil)

Date 1899 published

Im e tak –tak belong DUK-DUK

The two plugs that protrude on the left side of the harbour are known as Dawapia Rocks (also as the Beehives).The Toli story on how they came to be is as The two rocks were two brothers who had gone out fishing; they had caught so many fish and did not want to share the catch with the other villagers, they decided to cook and eat all the fish before they went back to the village. They rowed to the other side of the bay and collected fire wood and banana leaves and cooked all the fish, ate till they were bursting at the sides , day was near so they starter to return to the village , having eaten so much they dozed off while still on their canoe . The Ancestors on seeing the way they behaved being greedy and not sharing the fish with the Village turned them into Dawapia Rocks so as the villagers could enjoy the same fishing spot the two men had been fishing from. Protruding eerily from the centre of the bay are two strange looking rock formations named Dawapia Rocks (or the ‘Beehives’ to locals). These rocks are erosional remnants of the original volcano and are revered by local people for their spiritual symbolism

The Beehives accommodate 200 village people image taken 1905

Pacific Islands Pilot: Eastern groupsBy United States. Hydrographic Office

This image taken 26th February 1905

SCENE OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN NEW GUINEA Rabaul, in July, 1914 : The volcanoes are on the extreme left. Beehives, the island beyond the vessels in the harbour, has disappeared. I An iron cross was placed on the top of this island by the Brothers of the Vunapope Mission From the Time Simpson Named the Bee Hives in July 1872 the Dawapia Rocks Village would have lived a peaceful existence up until 1937 when the Village was devastated with loss of life

The Bee Hives Simpson Harbour, HistoryI am Probably right in saying millions of peoples over the years have passed & seen then in there majestic beauty the rocks protruding out of Simpson Harbour taken photographs talked about then, yet have they ever taken time to think where, when, why and how they became, DAWAPAI ROCKS, or better known as the Bee Hive islands in Simpson Harbour, where once a thriving a Village lived on these Islands, But Sank Drowning many Villages during an earlier Eruption in 1937,(Simpson Harbour is a sheltered harbour of Blanche Bay, on the Gazelle Peninsula in the extreme north of New Britain. The harbour is named after Captain Cortland Simpson who was surveying the bay while in command of HMS Blanche in 1872. The former capital city of Rabaul is on its shores. The harbour is part of a huge flooded caldera, Rabaul caldera. The harbour is ringed by a number of volcanoes.)

Global Volcanism Program

Documents and Readings in New Guinea History

How Dangerous is Rabaul Volcano