Savusavu

Introducing Savusavu

Savusavu is the fastest changing place in Fiji. The town is in the grip of a property boom, fuelled by scores of new residents from the USA and Europe. Good restaurants and lively bars have opened on the main street. Well-stocked shops - including a peerless bottle shop - cater for expats and yachties. While other colonial clubs - such as those in Labasa - have become rather desperate places, the lovely old Savusavu Planters' Club has built a comfortable new deck.

The Tourism Association has prettied up the town with flowers, had traditional designs painted on the telegraph poles, and planted tall trees for shade around the bus station and the market. There is a new gringo vibrancy about the place.

The first settlers to arrive in Vanua Levu during the colonial era were North American copra planters, and ownership of properties often changed hands in the USA. Today, you can buy land around Savusavu from Hawaii. The local economy grew up around the copra trade in the second half of the 19th century, but the big money went out of copra long ago. The families that own the big plantations are subdividing small portions of their inheritance, cutting 10 hectares here and there off their huge holdings, and selling them to strangers with dreams of developing resorts.

More yachties arrive here every year. There are 40 to 60 boats in the harbour at any given time. Things have expanded so quickly, there is little room for any new moorings. Some traditional landowners are refusing to renew the leases on Indian sugar-cane farms, hoping the land can be developed for tourism. They have seen prices of freehold land go through the clouds, and have the same hopes for leasehold properties - but anyone who builds on leasehold land in Fiji is taking a wild risk. Just ask the Indo-Fijians.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009