Rennell Island (Solomon Islands)

Rennell Island, locally known as Mugaba, is the main island of two inhabited islands that make up the Rennell and Bellona Province in the nation state of Solomon Islands. Rennell Island has a land area of 660 square kilometres (250 sq mi) and is about 80 kilometres (50 mi) long and 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) wide. It is the second largest raised coral atoll in the world with the largest lake in the insular Pacific, Lake Tegano, a lake that is listed as a World Heritage Site. Rennell Island has a population of about 1,840 persons of Polynesian descent who primarily speak Rennellese, Pijin and some English. Rennell and Bellona Islands are two of the few islands in the otherwise Melanesian Solomon Islands archipelago classified as a Polynesian outlier. The island lies 236 kilometres (127 nmi; 147 mi) south of Honiara and 1,900 kilometres (1,000 nmi; 1,200 mi) north-east of Brisbane. The provincial capital, Tigoa, is at the western end of the island. Bauxite mining and logging on the west side of the island was poorly regulated, resulted in spills, and seriously damaged the ecology and economy of the island between 2011 and 2021.