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Bougainville Island (Tok Pisin: Bogenvil) is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea, also known as Bougainville Province. It formed the main landmass of the German Empire-associated North Solomons. With four to five hundred-metre-width-strait separated Buka Island (c.500 km2) its land measures 9,300 km2 (3591 sq miles). The population of the province is 234,280 (2011 census), which includes islets such as the Carterets. Mount Balbi on the main island at 2,715 m is the highest point. The Buka strait, despite its narrowness, is unbridged, however regular ferries operate between the key settlements on either side and Buka Town has the main northern airstrip/airport. It is the largest of the Solomon Islands archipelago most of which, concentrated south and east, are politically independent as the Solomon Islands; from two of these in the close-knit Shortland Islands it is less than 9 km north or north-west to Bouganville; they are in turn about 30 km west of Choiseul, a settlement of which, Poroporo faces Bouganville. An outcrop of Buka is 175 kilometres (109 mi) from New Ireland, the next grand island of Papua New Guinea.