Belait River

Belait River
Belait River
	View of Belait River from Rasau bypass
Native name	Sungai Belait
Location
Country	Brunei
District	Belait
Physical characteristics
Mouth
• location	Kuala Belait, Belait, Brunei
• coordinates	4°35′48″N 114°10′37″E / 4.5966693°N 114.1769489°E
• elevation	5 m (16 ft)
Length	206 km (128 mi)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Mendaram, Damit
• right	Pali Bangun

The Belait River (Malay: Sungai Belait) is a river in Belait District, Brunei. It is the longest of the four main rivers in the country.^[1]

History

During World War II from 1941 onwards, the whole of Brunei was under Japanese occupation until 1945.^[2]

On 26 May 1979, Borneo's only floating drydock arrived in Belait River.^[3] After being towed from Melbourne by a Japanese tug for 50 days, the 1943 Australian built drydock, formerly named AD 1001, was acquired by the Kuala Belait Shipyard.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Sites

Kuala Belait is one of the largest human settlements in the district in which the river passes through,^[3] while on the west bank lies the Kampong Sungai Teraban and Kampong Rasau.^[7] Going upstream will lead to Mukim Kuala Balai.^[8]

Some of Brunei's historical sites are located along the river banks, which included the Menara Cendera Kenangan, a monument in celebration of His Majesty's 50th birthday.^[9]

Kuala Belait port is one of the three existing ports in Brunei and it's operated by Brunei Shell.^[10] A smaller shallow commercial jetty and a marine shipyard lies south of the main port in Kampong Sungai Duhon.

References

^ "BRUNEI – BELAIT DISTRICT". Borneo Tour Specialist. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
^ Hays, Jeffrey. "LATER HISTORY OF BRUNEI | Facts and Details". factsanddetails.com. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Kuala Belait History, History of Kuala Belait, Kuala Belait City Information :: Traveltill.com". Traveltill. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
^ gp (4 May 2019). "Lest We Forget » Borneo Bulletin Online". Lest We Forget. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
^ Ocean Industry. Gulf Publishing Company. 1983. p. 139.
^ "Darwin's Floating Dry-Dock - Page 3 of 3". Naval Historical Society of Australia. 15 December 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
^ "www.bsp.com.bn - History of Oil and Gas". 15 May 2007. Archived from the original on 15 May 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
^ "Kuala Belait, the Oil Capital". Kuala Belait, the Oil Capital. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
^ activ8bn. "Menara Cendera Kenangan". Brunei Tourism. Retrieved 26 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Kuala Belait Port". SHIPNEXT. Retrieved 26 April 2022.