Fly River
Encyclopedia : F : FL : FLY : Fly River
The Fly is the longest river of the island of New Guinea. (Although the Sepik also claims to be the longest) The first European exploration was in 1845 by Captain Blackwood in the British naval ship the Fly after which the river is named. It rises in the Star Mountains, and crosses the southwestern lowlands before reaching the Gulf of Papua in a large estuary. The Fly has a length of 1050 km; it flows through Papua New Guinea except for a small stretch where it forms the boundary between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This section is the only part of the Papua New Guinea/Indonesia border which is not on the 141°E longitude line, thus giving Papua New Guinea a small area to the west of this line.
The principal tributaries of the Fly are the Strickland and the Ok Tedi. The source of one of the worst environmental disasters in the world, the Ok Tedi Mine, is located near the headwaters of the Ok Tedi.
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