Buka Island in the context of "Marine ecoregion"

8°00′S 159°00′E / 8.000°S 159.000°E / -8.000; 159.000

The Solomon Islands is an island group (archipelago) in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. The many islands of the archipelago are distributed across the sovereign states of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The largest island in the archipelago is Bougainville Island, which is a part of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (currently a part of Papua New Guinea) along with Buka Island, the Nukumanu Islands, and a number of smaller nearby islands. Much of the remainder falls within the territory of Solomon Islands and include the atolls of Ontong Java, Sikaiana, the raised coral atolls of Bellona and Rennell, and the volcanic islands of Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Makira, Malaita, New Georgia, the Nggelas, Santa Isabel, and the Shortlands. The Santa Cruz Islands are not a part of the archipelago.

Bougainville (/ˈboʊɡənvɪl/ BOH-gən-vil; Tok Pisin: Bogenvil), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the region also includes Buka Island and a number of outlying islands and atolls. The provisional capital is Buka, on Buka Island.

In 2024, the region had an population of 367,093. The lingua franca of Bougainville is Tok Pisin, while a variety of Austronesian and non-Austronesian languages are also spoken. The region includes several Polynesian outliers where Polynesian languages are spoken. Geographically, the islands of Bougainville and Buka form part of the Solomon Islands archipelago, but they are politically separate from the independent country of Solomon Islands. Historically, Bougainville and Buka, together with the islands of Choiseul, Santa Isabel, the Shortlands, and Ontong Java, which are all now part of the country of Solomon Islands, formed the German Solomon Islands Protectorate, the geographical area later being referred to as the North Solomon Islands.

6°14′40″S 155°23′02″E / 6.24444°S 155.38389°E / -6.24444; 155.38389

The North Solomon Islands form a geographical area covering the more northerly group of islands in the Solomon Islands archipelago and includes Bougainville and Buka Islands, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, the Shortland Islands and Ontong Java Atoll. In 1885 Germany declared a protectorate over these islands forming the German Solomon Islands Protectorate. With the exception of Bougainville and Buka, these were transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1900. Bougainville and Buka continued under German administration until the outset of World War I, when they were transferred to Australia, and after the war, were formally passed to Australian jurisdiction under a League of Nations mandate.

5°25′19″S 154°40′22″E / 5.42194°S 154.67278°E / -5.42194; 154.67278

Buka is a town located on the southern coast of Buka Island, in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in eastern Papua New Guinea. It is administered under Buka Rural LLG. It is the capital of North Bougainville District and the interim capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. It contains Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral.