Kainantu is a town in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It had some historical significance as an airstrip town during WWII. It functions primarily as a market town for local produce growers and cash croppers. It is located on the "Highlands Highway" approximately by road from Lae and by road from Goroka. It is approx from a nearby missionary station Ukarumpa and is nearby the Aiyura valley. Kainantu has basic facilities such as a school, hospital, police station, district court, and service stations. History Early History The area was explored in the 1929 by the two Lutheran missionaries, Pilhofer and Bergmann. and again in 1930 by two Australian explorers Mick Leahy and Mick Dwyer. Early missions Under German New Guinea this area was part of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. Lutheran missionaries first established mission stations at Finschhafen and moved up the Markham Valley towards the Eastern Highlands. Between 1916-18 the Kaiapit station was established by the Neuendettelsau Mission Society and by 1919 eighteen Yabem evangelists were resident in the surrounding area and made contact with small groups on the fringes of the Eastern Highlands. These early contacts with the Gadsup were gradually developed in the early 1920s and evangelist out-stations were successively founded by the Lutherans at Binumarien and Wampur. Lutheran missionaries, Pilhofer and Bergmann explored this area and in 1931 established a temporary mission station, bush-material home and small farm at Kambaidam to enable further extension of the mission inland. In 1933 they established a more convenient station at Onerunka, near Kainantu where they joined a small number of gold prospectors and government officers from the Upper Ramu (Kainantu) patrol post. In 1934 a small Seventh-day Adventist undertaking was started at Kainantu by a European missionary and ten Solomon Islands evangelists which increased to 40 the following year. In 1941 there were 19 Seventh-day Adventist outposts compared to 17 Lutheran out-stations but this decreased after the war. Throughout the 1930s internecine warfare was common and resulted in the deaths of two Europeans and retribution. An influenza epidemic resulted in many sorcery accusations and tribal fighting and a new Kainantu government officer (James Taylor) attempted a process of "re-education". Pacification movement In response to the disturbances, the administration amended the Uncontrolled Areas Ordinance (1925) to curtail European movement in the highlands. Apart from government officers, Europeans were not allowed to enter the Highlands and those presented were restricted to their settlements.