Lae, Papua New Guinea · UTC+10 ☆

Lae is Papua New Guinea’s second city[3] and its industrial heartland, a port on the Huon Gulf with a major industrial zone, the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, and the terminus of the Highlands Highway connecting it to the interior of New Guinea. It runs on Pacific/Port_Moresby time: UTC+10, year-round, no daylight saving.

The Huon Gulf receives the Markham River, one of Papua New Guinea’s most significant waterways, which drains the broad Markham Valley toward the coast at Lae. The valley floor is a critical agricultural zone, and Lae’s port handles much of the valley’s copra, coffee, and palm oil exports.

WWII airfields and PNG’s industrial engine

Lae has historical significance from World War II. The city was occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1943[4], and the campaign to retake it included the parachute assault on Nadzab in the Markham Valley, later described as “probably the classic text-book airborne operation of World War II”[5]. The airfields built during that period became the foundation of modern air transport in PNG.

At 6 degrees south of the equator, Lae has near-constant daylength. Sunrise around 6am, sunset around 6pm, year-round. The wet and dry seasons, and the tidal schedule at the port, matter more to daily life than the clock.

9am in Lae is 11pm the previous night in London, ten hours ahead.

Read more about time in Papua New Guinea →