Port Moresby offers a range of themes to consider when planning a trip: the Parliament House represents traditional architecture, the Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery offers a diverse collection, and the Port Moresby Nature Park focuses on nature. The Bomana War Cemetery, a nearby memorial site connected to the Second World War, rounds out this selection. These places can be distinguished according to cultural, nature-related, or historical interests.

Architecture and cultural collections

The Parliament House in Port Moresby is designed to reflect the traditional architecture of Papua New Guinea. Traditional carvings and works of art adorn the building. Both the design concept and the decorative elements on the building are therefore relevant to its architectural theme. Those interested in architecture will find a specific focus here, distinct from the museum collection: at the Parliament House, the building’s form and ornamentation take center stage.

The Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery offers a different focus. Its collection includes traditional artifacts, archaeological finds, contemporary art, and photographs from across Papua New Guinea. It therefore spans everything from objects and finds to contemporary works of art and photographs relating to the whole country. In contrast to the Parliament House, the focus here is not on the design of a building, but on different areas of the collection. This distinction is useful when choosing a cultural focus: architecture and ornamentation offer a different thematic perspective from a collection that includes several types of artifacts, finds, art, and photographs.

Nature at Port Moresby Nature Park

The Port Moresby Nature Park complements the cultural themes with a focus on nature. It features green spaces, wildlife exhibits, and a large orchid collection. These features offer distinct points of interest: the orchid collection relates to plant life, the exhibits to wildlife, and the green spaces form another part of the park. This means that within the nature theme, several distinct areas of interest sit alongside architecture and the museum collection.

The nature park also has a two-kilometer-long wooden boardwalk that runs beneath a jungle forest. In addition to the orchid collection and wildlife exhibits, this offers a different kind of focus: the boardwalk is characterized by its length and its route beneath the forest. The park’s nature themes thus range from collections and exhibits to a built feature in a forested setting. When organizing nature-related themes for your trip, you can consider these different parts of the park separately rather than reducing them to a single focus.

Bomana as a nearby memorial site

The Bomana War Cemetery is located about 19 kilometers northeast of Port Moresby and is one of the most significant Second World War memorial sites in the Pacific region. As a nearby, distinct point of interest, it complements the city’s architectural, cultural, and nature-related aspects with remembrance of the war. Its status as a significant memorial site in the Pacific region gives this historical focus a regional perspective. For travelers who want to include memorial sites in their choice of themes, Bomana is distinct from the focuses at Parliament House, in the museum collection, and at the Nature Park.

Discover more destinations: Mount Hagen, Lae, Goroka, Omili, Tufi, Matukar, Pakanakapiaka, Rabaul.

For the broader travel overview: Papua New Guinea.