Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash from a volcanic eruption in its harbor.

[4] During World War II, it was captured by Japan in 1942 and became its main base of military and naval activity in the South Pacific.

As a tourist destination, Rabaul is popular for its volcanoes, scuba diving and for snorkelling sites, spectacular harbour and other scenery, World War II history, flora and fauna, and the cultural life of the Tolai people.

In 1910 the German colonial government during the administration of Governor Albert Hahl moved offices, the district court, a hospital and customs and postal facilities from Herbertshöhe (today's Kokopo) to Simpsonhafen.

Following Germany's defeat at the end of the war, the occupied territory was delegated in 1920 to Australia as a League of Nations Mandate (Class C).

Gunantambu, the famous house of "Queen" Emma Forsayth and her husband, contained furniture previously owned by Robert Louis Stevenson and left to her family in Samoa.

Since then, the young cone Tavurvur located inside the caldera has been the site of near persistent activity in form of strombolian to vulcanian ash eruptions.

Then in 1937, catastrophic volcanic eruptions destroyed the town after the two volcanoes, Tavurvur and Vulcan, exploded and killed 507 people, as well as causing widespread damage.

[4][10] The military personnel, and most civilians who had remained in Rabaul, were placed aboard the Montevideo Maru, which was sunk off the Philippines in June 1942.

[12][14] During their occupation the Japanese developed Rabaul into a much more powerful base than the Australians had planned after the 1937 volcanic eruptions, with long-term consequences for the town in the post-war period.

Yamamoto had taken off from Rabaul on an inspection tour, and United States Navy cryptographers had intercepted and then decrypted Japanese communications giving his flight itinerary.

[15] Sixteen United States Army Air Forces P-38 Lightning fighters took off from Guadalcanal and intercepted and shot down the two bombers of the Yamamoto flight, for the loss of one P-38.

The last eruption and continuing low and modest levels of activity prompted moving the provincial capital to Kokopo, the former German Herbertshöhe.

Vulcan has remained quiet since 1994, but small and large eruptions from nearby Tavurvur occur intermittently, with the most recent of note being on 29 August 2014.

[citation needed] Rabaul features a tropical rainforest climate, which is constantly hot, humid, overcast and oppressive.