Phosphate mining has left the interior landscape savagely scarred.
Rubbish litters roads and yards, while decades-old infrastructure is broken and left to decay.Ī gorgeous sunrise view over the ocean includes old ship-loading equipment, slowly rusting into the sea.
Nauruan homes are very basic and often seem partly built. At the leisurely speed limit of 40 kilometres per hour it takes about half an hour to drive around the island, allowing plenty of time to take in the scenery. The population of about 9,500 clings to the coast, along Nauru's one main thoroughfare, which is effectively a 24-kilometre ring road. Some motorists drive around, some wait at the gates. When a plane lands or departs large gates close off the road like railway crossings and allow the plane to pass through. The airport terminal is on one side of the main road, the runway is on the other.įine powdered dust from the phosphate mining industry is suspended in the island's air. The island is surrounded by a shallow coral tidal shelf which extends about 40 metres before plunging dramatically 50 metres to the ocean floor.Īs you leave the plane, you're bathed by warm, fragrant tropical air. The flight from Australia consists of hours of ocean views, broken briefly by a glimpse of Solomon Islands before being rewarded with a view of the tiny island nation in a vast blue ocean.ĭepending on the season - there are only two to choose from, the wet or the dry - the whole island either appears green from the air or the centre appears dry and lunar, ringed by leafy lowlands. Sitting just one degree below the equator and 3,000 kilometres north-east of Cairns, the world's smallest republic runs at the easy, good-natured pace of steamy tropical locations.Ī first impression of Nauru is usually from the air and, overwhelmingly, it's one of extraordinary isolation. Nauru was once known as Pleasant Island, and locals will tell you it still is.
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