Aneityum: The Southernmost Inhabited Island in Vanuatu, and Its Lagoon

The southern end of the chain

Aneityum is the southernmost inhabited island in Vanuatu. It is mountainous, forested and quiet, with most of the population living at Anelghowhat on the south coast.

Mystery Island

Off that coast sits Mystery Island, a low sand cay that cruise ships call at. On a ship day the cay is busy and Aneityum itself supplies the market and the transfers; on every other day both are empty.

The forest and the reef

Kauri stands survive in the interior, and the reef around the island is in good condition and lightly dived. There is no road network to speak of; movement is on foot and by boat.

The island itself

Aneityum covers about 160 square kilometres and rises to roughly 850 metres. Most of the population — a little under a thousand people — lives at Anelghowhat on the south coast. The interior is forested and includes kauri stands; the coast carries reef in good condition.

Mission history

Aneityum was the base from which Presbyterian missions spread through the southern islands. John Geddie arrived in 1848 and stayed more than twenty years, and the island was one of the first in the group to convert. A stone church from the period stands at Anelghowhat. See missionaries.

The cruise economy

Ships anchor off Mystery Island, the sand cay a few hundred metres offshore, and passengers tender across. The people of Aneityum supply the market, the transfers and the boats, and the income from ship days is a significant part of the local economy. On days without a ship, both the cay and the island are quiet.

Visiting independently

Flights land on the airstrip on Mystery Island itself, and a boat crosses to Anelghowhat. Accommodation is village-based. There is effectively no road network; the way around is on foot and by boat.

The forest

Aneityum holds stands of kauri in the interior, at the extreme eastern limit of the species’ range. The trees were cut for masts and spars in the nineteenth century alongside the sandalwood trade, and what survives does so because it was difficult to extract and not because it was protected.

A population that nearly went

Aneityum had several thousand people before contact. Introduced disease, particularly measles in the 1860s, reduced the population by something approaching ninety per cent within a generation. The island has never returned to its earlier numbers, and the stone church at Anelghowhat was built by a community that was losing members while it worked.

Inyeug and the mainland

The relationship between Aneityum and the cay off it is worth stating plainly: the cay has the airstrip and the ships, the island has the people, the water and the gardens. Neither works without the other, and the arrangement predates tourism by a long way.

Water and gardens

Anelghowhat sits where it does because of fresh water. The streams running off the interior made the south coast the only practical site for a settlement of any size, and the terraced gardens above the village follow the same water. Everything else on the island is reached from there.

Reef in good condition

The reef around Aneityum is lightly fished and almost undived, and the lagoon on the south side is shallow and clear. Marine conservation areas operate under customary closure — a reef is put under tabu for a period and reopened by decision, which is an older and more effective instrument than most formal regulation.

Getting around

There is no ring road and effectively no vehicle traffic. Movement between the villages is on foot along the coast or by boat, and inland walking to the kauri stands takes the better part of a day with a guide.