Thio, New Caledonia

Thio
An aerial view of the village of Thio An aerial view of the village of Thio
Location of the commune (in red) within New Caledonia Location of the commune (in red) within New Caledonia
Coordinates:
Country	France
Sui generis collectivity	New Caledonia
Province	South Province
Government
• Mayor	Thierry Song
Area1	997.6 km2 (385.2 sq mi)
Population (2014 census)2	2,643
• Density	2.6/km2 (6.9/sq mi)
Ethnic distribution
• 1996 census	Kanaks 70.1% Europeans 16.2% Polynesians 11.4% Other 2.3%
INSEE/Postal code	98829 / 98829
Elevation	0–1,618 m (0–5,308 ft) (avg. 10 m or 33 ft)
1 New Caledonia Land Register (DITTT) data, which exclude lakes and ponds larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Thio is a commune in the South Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean.

A novel Aerial tramway existed here at the start of the 20th century to facilitate loading ore ships offshore.

References

• http://www.cable-car.de/bleichert.htm “1903 Sea-lift at Thio / New Caledonia” (1903 is order date)
• https://archive.org/details/selectedbibliogr00amerrich 1916. pg 15 “about one thousand yards long”. Refers to Scientific American Supplement November 27, 1909 and Engineering & Mining Journal February 20, 1909 5 pages, illustrated.
• Peter von Bleichert wrote a book on "Bleichert's Wire Ropeways" that contains information on the design, construction, and operation of the wire ropeway at Thio, New Caledonia, and has, on its cover, artwork depicting the ropeway: http://www.amazon.com/Bleicherts-Wire-Ropeways-ebook/dp/B00DJZ6QSI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1373230767&sr=8-6&keywords=bleichert%27s
• http://www.zapgillou.fr/mondalazac/articleweb/partie2.htm has a postage stamp, a short description and a Google Earth view.