Geography of New Caledonia Geography of New Caledonia The geography of New Caledonia ("Nouvelle-Calédonie"), an overseas collectivity of France located in the subregion of Melanesia, makes the continental island group unique in the southwest Pacific. Among other things, the island chain has played a role in preserving unique biological lineages from the Mesozoic. It served as a waystation in the expansion of the predecessors of the Polynesians, the Lapita culture. Under the Free French it was a vital naval base for Allied Forces during the War in the Pacific. The archipelago is located east of Australia, north of New Zealand, south of the Equator,
Walpole Island (New Caledonia) Walpole Island (New Caledonia) Walpole Island (French: "Île de Walpole") is a small and uninhabited French island, east of New Caledonia in the South Pacific. Although it is geographically part of the Loyalty Islands, administratively it belongs to the Isle of Pines municipality of New Caledonia. There is evidence that the island had prehistoric inhabitants. Graves, shell and bone tools, as well as stone markers indicate the presence of a permanent population at some point. The island is the topic of several oral traditions from Maré and the Isle des Pines, the two closest inhabited islands. Speculation amongst the overseers