Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (PNG; , ; ; ), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. At the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. This followed nearly 60
Papua New Guinea Independence Medal were also awarded the medal. Papua New Guinea Independence Medal The Papua New Guinea Independence Medal was created in 1975 to commemorate the transition from self-government to the full independence of Papua New Guinea. It is a part of the Papua New Guinea honours system. The Government of Papua New Guinea awarded the Papua New Guinea Independence Medal to members of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, who had served between 1 December 1973 and 16 September 1975. Civilian recipients were honoured for outstanding service during the same period of time. Military personnel and civilians from Commonwealth realms such as