What? Where? Who? Nauru! Trivia Quiz

Answer: I go to the beach

Originally there were just seventeen letters in the Nauruan written alphabet, but successive colonial powers brought their languages and influences, and since the 1930s written Nauruan uses twenty-nine letters. Early German settlers called the island "Nawodo", and to the first English visitors and residents it was known as "Pleasant Island".

Answer: Germany

By 1914, Nauru was a prime source of valuable phosphates. Australian troops captured the island and Australia, New Zealand, and the UK formed the British Phosphate Commission to run mining operations.

Answer: The majority of its income derived from renting out its natural resources

At the time, Nauru was a phosphate island, and derived almost its entire income from the mining and sales of guano. The guano deposits had built up over many years, and mining operations were run by the Pacific Phosphate Company, and then the British Phosphate Company.

In 1989, the government and people of Nauru brought a case against Australia in the international courts in a bid to get compensation for the environmental damage these mining operations caused to the island.

Answer: The whole island is exclusively owned by ordinary Nauruans

Every Nauruan citizen has land rights on the island, and it is owned by family groups and individuals. Corporations, the Nauruan Government, and foreigners cannot own any land on the island. Any foreign company wishing to do business there must go through local people if they wish to lease land.

Answer: True

Nauru is just 21 square kilometers in area, making it the smallest of the world's island nations. The highest point above sea level is 71 metres, and is called Command Ridge.

Answer: Buada Lagoon

Buada Lagoon is the only significant body of fresh water on Nauru, with the only other sources being rainfall and some small ponds. Apart from the narrow coastal plain around the edges, the land near the Lagoon is the only fertile land on Nauru. Many of the buildings on Nauru have rainwater collection tanks on the roof, and there is a desalination plant to turn seawater into fresh.

Answer: The population of native Nauruans reaching 1500

In the aftermath of World War I, the population of native Nauruans was dangerously small, and a target of 1500 people was proposed as being the minimum needed to ensure the survival of the nation. The 1500th person was born in 1932, and declared the "Angam Baby".

After World War II, the population was again considerably reduced, and the second Angam Baby was born in 1949. Angam Day is now commemorated every year, to give thanks for the survival of the Nauruan people as a race.

Answer: God's Will First

Almost 80% of Nauruans are Christians, with around two thirds of them Protestant. The island also has followers of Islam, Bahai'a, and Buddhism. There is freedom of religion there, with some governmental control over the practices of the Church of Latter Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Answer: True

Nauru lies just 42 kilometres south of the Equator. Nauru, along with Banaba in Kiribati and Makatea in French Polynesia, was one of the "Big Three" phosphate islands in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Answer: Topside

Topside occupies the majority of the land on Nauru, and has been much damaged by the phosphate mining operations carried out there. There is a programme to regenerate the land, restore vegetation, and repair the environmental damage done by the mining.