Over a very short time, geologically speaking, these packets of rocks have ascended through the Earth's shallow mantle and pushed through the crust to form the gneiss domes we find today – the vestiges of the crust these massifs have thrust through are still draped as carapaces over the edges of the domes.

[citation needed] These islands are thought to be geophysically significant because they lie immediately ahead of the westernmost rift tip of the Woodlark spreading centre, which has been propagating westwards into the continent.

Almost a century later, in 1874, Captain John Moresby of HMS Basilisk made a running survey of the west coast of the islands and became the first European to make landfall.

[citation needed] It was used by allied forces from June 1943 to August 1944 as a staging point for operations in New Guinea and nearby occupied islands.

[citation needed] The inhabitants of D'Entrecasteaux Islands are indigenous subsistence horticulturalists living in small, traditional settlements.

People of this area produced and traded clay pots as well as participated in the Kula exchange of shell valuables, travelling widely to other islands on sea-going sailing canoes.