Ramu Valley

Ramu
River
Part of the Ramu from the air
Country	Papua New Guinea
Region	Madang Province
Source
- location	Kratke Range, Papua New Guinea
Mouth
- location	Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea
- coordinates	4°1′S 144°40′E / 4.017°S 144.667°E / -4.017; 144.667Coordinates: 4°1′S 144°40′E / 4.017°S 144.667°E / -4.017; 144.667
Length	640 km (400 mi) approx.
Location of the Ramu River

The Ramu is a river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels approximately 640 kilometres (398 mi) north-west to the Bismarck Sea.

Along the Ramu's course it receives numerous tributaries from the Bismarck Range to the south and the Finisterre and [[Adelbert

Local villagers have lived along the river for many millennia and the river has formed the basis for food, transport and culture.

The area encompassed by the Ramu was part of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland when Germany established German New Guinea in 1884. The Germans were quick to explore their territory and the mouth of the Ramu was discovered in 1886 by Vice-Admiral Freiherr von Schleinitz after returning to Finschhafen from an expedition to the nearby Sepik. Schleinitz called the Ramu, Ottilien after his ship the Ottilie.

The course of the river was first discovered ten years later in 1896 after Dr Carl Lauterbach, a botanist, led an expedition organised by the Neu Guinea Kompagnie to find the headwaters of the Markham River. After crossing the Ortzen Mountains from Astrolabe Bay south of Madang, Lauterbach's party instead of finding the Markham found an unknown river flowing north-west. The party canoed along a section before their supplies dwindled they returned to the coast retracing their route.

Another German explorer Ernst Tappenbeck, who had accompanied Lauterbach previously, led the first expedition to ascend the Ramu in 1898. Tappenbeck was charged with discovering whether the Ottilien found in 1886 was the same river Lauterbech had found. He was accompanied by former Prussian Army officers, a Kompagnie official and an Australian Gold prospector Robert Phillip and travelled in the Neu Guinea Kompagnie steamer Herzog Johann Albrecht.