Voco Point
| Voco Point | |
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| Suburb | |
Panoramic photo of Voco Point Lae facing north, yacht club, Mount Lunaman and Lutheran Shipping in center of photo
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 Voco Point
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| Coordinates: 6°44′20″S 147°0′11″E / 6.73889°S 147.00306°ECoordinates: 6°44′20″S 147°0′11″E / 6.73889°S 147.00306°E | |
| Country |
 Papua New Guinea
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| Province | Morobe |
| District | Lae |
| Time zone | AEST (UTC+10) |
Voco Point is a suburb of Lae in the Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Voco Point is one of the busiest coastal trading points in the country and coastal vessels from throughout the country, from Alotau to Manus, from Lihir to Vanimo line up at the wharves. The passenger boats ferry people to Finschhafen, the Siassi islands, Kimbe, Rabaul, New Ireland, Oro Bay, Alotau, Madang, and Wewak. The local Lae villages call the area around Voco Point Asiawi, which according to mythology, used to be a long point that went out much further but was eaten by the evil spirit Yaayaa.
Voco Point is located 1 km east of the main port of Lae and south of the main town on the coast.
The pre-World War I Vacuum Oil Company, later called Mobil, had a depot at the site of Voco Point. Voco is short for Vacuum Oil Company.
The main township of Lae was originally on the flats between Voco Point and the airfield. The site was later shifted to the terraces above where the elite had lived in the days before the war.
During colonial times, local Chinese trading stores dominated the area. The Chinese had been brought to Lae and Rabaul by German colonials, for their boat building and carpentry skills.
During the Japanese occupation of Lae, barges from Voco Point would unload to resupply Japanese submarines from Rabaul. Barges included the LSTs MK3 of the RAN.
On 18 March, two spotters from the 23rd Heavy Wireless Section watched 12 barges emerge from their Labu swamp hideout to Voco Point to meet a submarine, which was then bombed by the USAAF. The Commander of the submarine, Captain Yahachi Tanabe, was killed.
Macarthur's Communique in newspapers reported: "LAE: Allied planes bombed Voco Point, drove off 9 Zeros".
Lyndon B. Johnson was appointed Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve on 21 June 1940. Eleven B-26 Marauders of the 22nd Bomb Group departed Townsville on 8 June 1942, arrived in Port Moresby and raided Lae on 9 June 1942. The mission was called "TOW 9" and Lieutenant Commander Johnson, the future 36th President of the United States, went on this raid as an observer on the aircraft, the Heckling Hare. Nine days after the raid, Johnson was awarded a Silver Star medal for his participation in the above bombing raid.
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Wikipedia