changed to its present name. Julau was previously a sub-district under the jurisdiction of the Kanowit District. In 1973, Julau was upgraded into a district and put under the administration of Sarikei Division. In the 1960s, there were 24 democratically elected representatives in the Kanowit District Council. The Kanowit District was in turn put under the jurisdiction of the Third Division of Sarawak (also known as Sibu Division today). In the 1970s, the Kanowit government secondary school was the only secondary school apart from Sibu in the Rajang basin. Geography Kanowit is located at miles from the sea, near the Rajang River. Although the Rajang flows from east to west in its general course of direction, the river is flowing from south to north in Kanowit, with the Kanowit river entering Rajang south to north. The part of Rajang River near Kanowit is wide. The town of Kanowit is located in the north-south direction. The area around Kanowit contains mostly tertiary stage of Paleozoic rocks such as sandstones, greywicks, siltstone, shales, and slate. During the Peneplanation and Jerudong cycles, the erosions of the hills in the central Rajang basin has reduced their elevations to 200 to 300 feet, when compared to 3,000 to 5,000 feet mountains located near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border. The riverbanks at Kanowit are below sea level; therefore, Kanowit is subject to frequent flooding during periods of monsoon seasons. There are three types of soils in the Kanowit area: acid yellow soils found in the mountainous areas, podsols derived from sandy material at the moderately high terrains, and alluvial deposits at the flood plain areas. Climate Kanowit has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round. Demographics The total population in the Kanowit Bazaar (market) in 1960 was 1,555. It increased by 13% to 1,720 in August 1970, where 72.7% of them were Chinese and 18.1% were the Malays. Among the Chinese, Hokkien accounted for 48.8% of the population, followed by Cantonese (21.4%), and Fuzhounese (20.1%). The Iban people made up 6.5% of the population in the Kanowit bazaar. Outside the Kanowit bazaar, the Iban people were the majority. Some Malay families may raise or adopt children from other races. Therefore, names such as "Abdul Chen" and "Aminah Lim" may appear. All the ethnic groups in the Kanowit Bazaar only started arriving in the last 200 years. The "Kanowit" ethnic group, where the town