Varirata

Varirata National Park was established in 1969 in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea, some forty kilometres north-east of Port Moresby, and at barely 10 km² it is very small. It was the country's first national park.

It occupies a plateau at about eight hundred metres in the foothills of the Owen Stanley Range, from whose edge the coastal plain and the capital can be seen. The vegetation combines montane tropical forest in the hollows with eucalypt savannah in the exposed areas, an uncommon mosaic.

It is one of the most accessible places in the world for watching birds-of-paradise: the Raggiana bird-of-paradise, the national emblem and present on the country's flag, has display grounds here where the males show off their plumage in groups. It is also home to cassowaries, Papuan hornbills, parrots and a birdlife that draws watchers from all over the world. The territory belonged traditionally to the Koiari people, who used it as a defensive refuge, and the park preserves a reconstruction of their raised tree houses. Security problems around Port Moresby have restricted its use for years.