Taraka is a suburb of Lae in the Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The main campus for the Papua New Guinea University of Technology is located in Taraka. Location Both East Taraka and West Taraka are located 7 km from Lae on Rigel Road. A tributary for the Bumbu River meanders through Taraka. East Taraka is predominately commercial and industrial while West Taraka is mostly residential. Population In 1963 it was estimated that 10% of Lae's population lived in "Shanty-town settlements which describe both Omili and Taraka and there is evidence that these settlements have grown well above the average rate of Lae. Housing In May 1992, another study examined migrant settlement in and around Lae examining Tent Siti and West Taraka. Tent Siti Tensiti is situated in the northern part of the city and was first formed by people from Menyamya, Morobe Province in 1983. Now this settlement is composed of 30 households from Menyamya, 17 households from the Highlands areas, and 11 households form the Sepik areas. People live on government land and many of them work as wage earners. Examples of their occupations include a provincial officer, an employee of a private company, and a teacher. In addition, some of them are farmers in the city. West Taraka West Taraka is situated in the north-western part of the city, and Boundary Road is situated in the mid-western part of the city. Both grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s because of migration from the Highlands areas. The study found that almost half of the informants (48.5%) came to Lae in the 1980s. The figure is much higher in Mouth Markham (66.7%). East Sepik Province (30.3%) and the provinces in the Highlands (30.3%) stand out as places where the informants lived before they came to Lae. This tendency corresponds to the fact that most respondents were born in the Sepik and Highlands areas and less than half of them have had former migration experiences. The people from East Sepik tend to live in Mouth Markham, and those from the Highlands tend to concentrate in the West Taraka and Boundary Road settlements respectively. 57.6 percent of respondents came to Lae for employment. However, it is also true that their relatives (60.6%), were staying in Lae before the respondents moved to Lae. In May 1993, a study focused on the West Taraka Housing scheme and found that tenants were significantly