Lae, administrative and commercial city in the nation of Papua New Guinea, located at the eastern end of the island of New Guinea at the head of the Huon Gulf, near the mouth of the Markham River. Lae first developed as a port serving the Morobe goldfields, and until World War I (1914-1918) it existed under German rule. Afterward Australia administered the city, first as part of a League of Nations mandate, and after World War II (1939-1945) as part of the United Nations trust territory of New Guinea. During World War II the Japanese held Lae from the spring of 1942 to September 1943, when Allied forces under General Douglas MacArthur reclaimed the city and established a major Allied base there. In 1975 the trust territory and Australian-owned Papua united to become independent Papua New Guinea. Population (1990) 80,655.
