Kakabona

Tandai/Tadai Highway

In 1966, the main coastal road out of Honiara west of Rove Creek as far as Poha River was named Tadai which connected the Mendana Avenue through Honiara and after Mataniko River to Prince Philip Highway.

Villages

History

From 1870 West Guadacanal was visited by labour recruiters for the sugar plantations of Queensland followed by missionaries and colonial officials. The blackbirding practice ended with the passage of the Pacific Island Labourers Act in 1901 resulting in Pacific Islanders being repatriated and those from Solomon Islands were offloaded in the main anchorages in West Guadacanal.

During World War 2, the United States Marine Corps base was located in Tanaghai at the site of the mission station.

In 1946 patterns of normality returned to west Guadacanal following the defeat of the Japanese. A road from Honiara central to the west was constructed. The first vehicle, an American jeep owned by a Chinese trader was acquired in 1950 by a Kakabona man.

During the tension period of 1998, many displaced Malaitans refugees flowed from Visale, Aruligo, and Kakabona towards Honiara. Ceasefire negotiations in 2000 were attempted at Tanavasa Bridge, Kakabona but during the process two persons were killed and both parties resumed defence modes. Following the peace deal a weapons handover ceremony was conducted at Kakabona on 14 December 2001. In June 2001 the Guadacanal Premier Alebua was shot in the head, chest and arm in an assassination attempt at Kakabona by Harold Keke and Joe Sangu.

Languages

Industry

The main industry for Kakabona is Floricultural and in Honiara consists of two major groups of floricultural value chains. One is associated with growers from Kakabona where more potted plants are grown for sale. The growers generally take their products to the Honiara Municipal Market on Saturdays, the only day operating each week for the flower section. The other is associated with the private Betikama Adventist College.

The other industry is tourism and the main Kakabona Beach is frequented by residents of Honiara and the landowner charges a nominal admission fee.

Education

Churches

Laracy (1976, 11) in states that the Spanish expeditions to the Solomons in 1568, 1595 and 1605 were for exploration, colonisation and spreading the gospel. The French Marists first reached the Solomon Islands on 2 December 1845, led by Bishop Epalle and later formed the Melanesia and Micronesia district of Marists under Bishop Epalle with headquarters at Makira until the death of Bishop Epalle where attempts were abandoned. Catholic missionaries returned to the Solomons in 1898 when Bishop Julian Vidal landed at Tulagi settling on small Rua Sura Island off Aola Bay, Guadalcanal. Land was purchased at Tangarare in South Guadacanal in May 1898 and two priests were installed in June 1900. According to Raucaz (1928) As early as 1904, the big village of Kakabona received the faith and a chapel was built.

In North West Guadacanal, at Vaturanga and Visalemore land was purchased close to the Anglican missions. Rivalry continued between the French Marists and the Anglicans and in 1910 a Catholic church stone building was built at Visale being the only stone structure in Solomons at the time. In 1923, Visale replaced Rua Sura as the Marist headquarters. The substantial Visale Cathedral was destroyed in a severe earthquake on 25 January 1925 and later rebuilt in 1930. French was the common language with missionaries and texts were printed in Ghari language but later the lingua franca was changed to Pijin English. By 1918 there were 3000 Catholic conversions on Guadacanal. As a result of World War 2 the missions from Visale moved back to Tangarare due to safety reasons and then were evacuated by the Americans to Caledonia as the Japanese believed Marists were collaborating with the allies. After World War 2 the Bishop relocated to Kakabona using a small leaf chapel and later a Quonset hut. The remains of the Visale printing press were brought to Kakabona, where the Bishop made his headquarters at Tanagai. In 1946 twenty Marist students were sent to Fiji to study to become Marist brothers. in

Bishop Aubin (1934–1949) from his new headquarters at Tanagai Mission Station (Visale was in ruins) purchased the hill of Vatuliva from the Town Council in 1947. The hill located in Vuhokesa is the site of the Holy Cross Cathedral St Marys. It was written that Mendana erected a cross and a chapel on the hill.

In December 1966, Pope Paul VI established a new ecclesiastical hierarchy for Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The Vicar Apostolic of the South Solomons, Daniel W. Stuyvenberg (q.v.), was styled Bishop of Honiara, and Gizo Diocese was under Irishman Bishop Eusebius Crawford. Both were to be suffragans of the Metropolitan See of Rabaul. Dominicans ran the Gizo-based diocese, and Marists the Honiara-based diocese. In recognition that the Marists lacked the capacity to serve all of the Solomons, but the war halted progress and it was not until January 1956 that Dominican priests, friars and sisters set out from Australia to Gizo. They purchased Loga, an old Lever Brothers plantation a short canoe trip from Gizo, and set to work. They also purchased a Mission ship, the Salve Regina. In 1959, the Western District became an apostolic vicariate in its own right under Bishop Crawford. (O'Brien 1995, 157-170)

Entertainment

Kovuare Nightclub (Kaovare) was established in 1996 by Charles Keku a part Guadalcanal and part Malaitan, as a way of indigenous Solomon Islanders to participate in untouched economic activities such as night clubs.

Notable people