Vaileka commonly known as Rakiraki town is an urban centre in Fiji, in the Rakiraki region of Ra Province. It had a population of 3,361 at the 1996 census, the last to date. It is not officially a "town," however: that term is legally reserved for urban centres with organized municipal governments. The status of the area may be changed. The Fiji Times reported on 4 October 2006 that Uraia Waqa, Chairman of the Rakiraki Local Government Authority, had called for Vaileka to be officially incorporated as a Town, to be known as Rakiraki Town, in order to attract government investment. Local Government and Urban Development MinisterChaitanya Lakshman was reported to be sympathetic to the proposal.
An urban area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets and in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The creation of early predecessors of urban areas during the urban revolution led to the creation of human civilization with modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources leads to human impact on the environment.
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas and France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast, and Tuvalu to the north. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island is Ono-i-Lau. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the total population of 898,760. The capital, Suva, on Viti Levu, serves as the country's principal cruise-ship port. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi—where tourism is the major local industry—or Lautoka, where the sugar-cane industry is paramount. Due to its terrain, the interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited.
Ra is one of the fourteen provinces of Fiji. Occupying the northern area of Viti Levu, the largest island, it is one of eight Viti Levu-based Provinces. With a land area of 1341 square kilometers, it had a population of 30,432 at the 2017 census. The main urban centre is at Vaileka, with a population of 3,361 in 1996.
Vaileka street sceneBuses parked at the Vaileka bus station
The Penang Sugar Mill in Rakiraki, Fiji is one of the four sugar mills operated by the Fiji Sugar Corporation. The FSC is the sole producer of raw sugar in Fiji.
Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) is the government-owned sugar milling company in Fiji having monopoly on production of raw sugar in Fiji. It is also the largest public enterprise in the country employing nearly 3,000 people, while another 200,000 or more depend on it for their livelihood in rural sugar cane belts of Fiji.
Penang River is a river of Viti Levu, Fiji.
The Fiji Sugar Corporation, Penang Mill, Rakiraki.
Vaileka is twinned with Irish town Kenmare since 2015.
Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.
Kenmare is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.
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Suva is the capital and largest metropolitan city in Fiji. It is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Rewa Province, Central Division.
Vanua Levu, formerly known as Sandalwood Island, is the second largest island of Fiji. Located 64 kilometres to the north of the larger Viti Levu, the island has an area of 5,587.1 square kilometres (2,157.2 sq mi) and a population of 135,961 as of 2007.
Lautoka is the second largest city of Fiji. It is in the west of the island of Viti Levu, 24 kilometres north of Nadi and port of entry in Fiji, after Suva. Lying in the heart of Fiji's sugar cane-growing region, it is known as the Sugar City. Covering an area of 16 square kilometres, it had a population of 52,220 at the 2007 census, the most recent to date.
Viti Levu is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji, the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.
Labasa is a town in Fiji with a population of 27,949 at the most recent census held in 2007.
Sigatoka is a town in Fiji. It is found on the island of Viti Levu and is situated at the mouth of the Sigatoka River, after which it is named, some 61 kilometres from Nadi. In Fiji's last census (2007) the population of Sigatoka was at 9,622. Sigatoka is the principal urban centre for the province of Nadroga-Navosa.
Rakiraki is a district in Fiji's Ra Province. It is located about halfway between Suva and Nadi when travelling along the Kings Road, on the northern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island.
Nananu-I-Ra is an island in Fiji about 3 kilometers off the north coast of the main island of Viti Levu, near the town of Rakiraki in Ra Province. The island is 3.5 square kilometers and has a maximum elevation of 180 meters. The name "Nananu-I-Ra" means "Daydream of the West" in Fijian. Fijian mythology holds that Nananu-I-Ra is the point of departure for disembodied spirits leaving this world for the afterlife.
Lami, Fiji is an urban area in Rewa Province, Fiji, north-west of Suva. It was formally incorporated as a Town in 1977, and had a population of 20,529 at the most recent census in 2007. The municipal boundaries enclose an area of 680 square kilometers.
Naitasiri is one of the 14 provinces of Fiji and one of eight located on Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island.
The Fiji Football Association is the governing body of football in Fiji. It came into existence in 1961, replacing the ethnically based Fiji Indian Football Association. The Indian Association was formed in 1938 but football in Fiji had a much humbler beginning.
The Navua River is located in the island of Viti Levu in Fiji and has its source on the south east slope of Mount Gordon and flows for 65 kilometers to the south coast. It is noted for the scenic beauty of the rugged mountain country through which it flows.
In the late 19th century a sugar mill was built on the banks of this river, and although the mill was shut down in 1923, the town of Navua stands on its site.
Sugar cane grew wild in Fiji and was used as thatch by the Fijians for their houses (bures). The first attempt to make sugar in Fiji was on Wakaya Island in 1862 but this was a financial failure. With the cotton boom of the 1860s there was little incentive to plant a crop that required high capital outlay but after a slump in cotton prices in 1870, the planters turned to sugar. In an effort to promote the production of sugar in Fiji, the Cakobau Government, in December 1871, offered a 500-pound reward for the first and best crop of twenty of sugar from canes planted before January 1873.
The Penang Island City Council is the local government that administers the city of George Town, which includes the entirety of Penang Island. The City Council, which has jurisdiction over an area of nearly 306 km2 (118 sq mi), falls under the purview of the Penang state government.
The Greater Penang Conurbation that covers all of Penang, southern Kedah and northern Perak is Malaysia's second most populous metropolitan area. It is centred in George Town, Penang's capital city and also the second most populous city in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur. As such, this conurbation is alternatively referred to as the George Town Conurbation.
George Town, the capital city of the State of Penang, is the second largest city in Malaysia and the economic centre of the country's northern region. The history of George Town began with its establishment by Captain Francis Light of the British East India Company in 1786. Founded as a free port, George Town became the first British settlement in Southeast Asia and prospered in the 19th century as one of the vital British entrepôts within the region. It briefly became the capital of the Straits Settlements, a British crown colony which also consisted of Singapore and Malacca.
