 Lat
6° 13' 0S Long 155° 37' 60E Town on the west coast of
Bougainville.
Site of the initial Japanese
landings on Bougainville on January 23, 1942 (February 18, 1942 ?) Many
of the buildings and infrastructure was destroyed during the
long Bougainville crisis of the 1990's.
Allied Missions Against Kieta
January 21, 1943 - June 14, 1944
Kieta Airfield
Used by the Japanese during the war. Closed during 'Bougainville Crisis'.
 Kieta
Memorial Park
Memorial park at the town's main intersection. Several memorials, guns, a Japanese Type 89 Tank and recovered Zero is displayed on a pole.
Kieta Wharf
 The Kieta Wharf
has been cleaned and is back in use since the Civil
War. There is still a half submerged wreck beside the
wharf. The Christian book ship the MV DOULOS was here the
other month and docked at Kieta Wharf. The Aropa airfield
has been repaired since the crisis and is the airfield
used by the PMG. Photo Josh McDade 1999.
Kekere Plantation
South of Kieta town, past the airport.
IJN
Barge
Shirley Cook 1974
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Wartime History
Sunk at at Kekere. The local name for the place is Chivaroi (Orawere Bay).
Shirley Cook adds:
"In 1974 Nigel, Morobe Bob, David Pennefather, Vicky and Piet Ellnor and I dived on a Japanese barge just offshore from Kekere Plantation. The barge was quite wide, deep and long. A grown man could stand up and rest his arms on the outside, with just his head and shoulders above the side. The barge was in good condition and full of boxes of ammunition. The boys were using an air vacuum to pump the mud/sand out of the wreck, and when they uncovered the ammo, it was all round and gold looking and they thought they had really struck something. There was a very large gun on a tower construction at the
back of the barge."
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 Bomber Wreck
The propeller was salvaged, and then displayed at Aropa Plantation in the 1970s.
Aropa Plantation
South of Kieta town, near the airport
Kobuan Bay
Bay at Kieta, located to the north of the Kieta Peninsula.
Buka
WWI German wooden steamer scuttled in 1914 near the peninsula.
Kieta Harbor
Located to the south of the Kieta Peninsula, Bakawari Island is to the south.
 Wogoromodo Reef Wreck
Unknown vessel (barge?) on the reef between Tautsina and Arovo Islands. Photos by Shirley Cook 1975.
Mawara Bay
Bay on the south side of Kieta Peninsula, east of Kieta Harbor.
 Large Japanese Wreck
Sunk by air attack in Mawara Bay off Kieta Harbor. Photos by Shirley Cook, 1975.
 Small Japanese Wreck
Sunk in Mawara Bay off Kieta Harbor. Photos by Shirely Cook, 1977
Yoshinogawa
Maru
Sunk off Kieta on January 9, 1943
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