VANUATU.
Aneityum and Futuna islands map.
Twelfth stamp in a set of 13, issued on 30.07.1980 (issue in English language).
Face value: 200 New Hebrides francs.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Catalogues
- Michel No. 572.
- Scott No. 291.
- StampWorld No. 12.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 298E.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 607.
Aneityum
(also known as Anatom or Keamu) is the southernmost island of
Vanuatu archipelago. It is a volcanic island and is surrounded by coral reefs
and beaches. Its surface area is 159.2 km2 (61.5 sq mi) and its
dimensions are, from north to south, 12.3 km (7.63 mi) and from east to west,
16.9 km (10.50 mi). Its highest points are the mounts Inrerow Atamein, of 852 m
(2,795 ft) and Nanawarez, of 804 m (2,638 ft): theoretically they are extinct
volcanoes, but they erupted in the early 1990s and destroyed much of the center
of the island. Its southeastern cape, Nétchan Néganneaing, is the southernmost
point of land in Vanuatu. It has an airport, not on the main island itself, but
on the small neighbor of Inyeug.
In 2009, its population was just over 900 inhabitants. It is estimated that
when James Cook discovered the island in 1774, its population was about 12,000;
a census made by missionaries in 1858 gave the figure of 3,600 people, but in
1861 the population was decimated by a measles epidemic; later, other diseases
and several devastating cyclones reduced it to just over 180. From 1825
Aneityum was exploited by French traders.
Futuna (or West Futuna, to distinguish it from another island of the same name in French Polynesia) is the easternmost island of Vanuatu and is located in the Coral Sea, although its east coast borders the Pacific Ocean. It was formed by the rise of an underwater volcano more than 11,000 years ago, now inactive, which rises up to 643 m (1,110 ft). The island's surface area is just 13 km2 (5 sq mi), and its population, in 2009, was 526.
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