New Guinea

New Guinea (Niugini; Hiri Motu: Niu Gini; Papua, historically Irian) is the world's second-largest island, and with an area of abbr=on, the largest island in the Southern Hemisphere. Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, it is separated by the abbr=on wide Torres Strait from the Australian continent. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. The western half, known as Western New Guinea or West Papua, forms a part of Indonesia and is organized as the provinces of Papua and West Papua.