Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, on the island of New Britain, in the country of Papua New Guinea. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. 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.
During the eruption ash was sent thousands of metres into the air, and the subsequent rain of ash caused 80% of the buildings in Rabaul to collapse. After the eruption the capital was moved to Kokopo, about 20 kilometres away. Rabaul is continually threatened by volcanic activity because it is on the edge of the Rabaul caldera, a flooded caldera of a large pyroclastic shield.
Rabaul was planned and built around the harbor area known as Simpsonhafen during the German New Guinea administration which controlled the region between 1884 and formally through 1919. Rabaul was selected as the capital of the German New Guinea administration in 1905, and the administrative offices were transferred there in 1910. Rabaul was captured by the British Empire during the early days of World War I.