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Roots Earth in Levuka: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Levuka, Fiji, in Oceania. The Levuka stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Levuka, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: levuka.md

The 40 places in Levuka with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Levuka Historical Port Town
  2. Sacred Heart Church
  3. Beach Street
  4. Levuka Town Hall
  5. Royal Hotel
  6. Ovalau Club
  7. Lodge Polynesia (Masonic Lodge)
  8. Morris Hedstrom Store
  9. Levuka Community Centre & Museum
  10. Levuka Public School
  11. Marist Convent School
  12. Navoka Methodist Church
  13. Nasova House & Cession Site
  14. Provincial Bure (Nasova)
  15. Niukaube Hill
  16. Queens Wharf
  17. Levuka War Memorial
  18. Mission Steps (199 Steps)
  19. Totoga Creek
  20. Gun Rock
  21. St John's College, Cawaci
  22. Bishop's Tomb Mausoleum, Cawaci
  23. Seru Epenisa Cakobau Legacy
  24. Bau Island
  25. Lomaiviti Province
  26. Ovalau Island
  27. Devil's Thumb (Nadelaiovalau)
  28. Levuka Public Market
  29. PAFCO Tuna Cannery
  30. Levuka Traditional Village
  31. Vagadaci
  32. Draiba
  33. Lovoni Village
  34. Lovoni Valley Caldera
  35. Rukuruku Bay
  36. Waitovu Waterfall
  37. Tokou
  38. Wainaloka
  39. Levuka Old Cemetery
  40. Naigani Island

Is there an audio guide for Levuka Historical Port Town?

Yes. Levuka Historical Port Town has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Levuka places in the app, at -17.68401, 178.84013. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Levuka

Open Roots Earth and choose Levuka. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Levuka, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Levuka, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Levuka Historical Port Town

Coordinates
-17.68401, 178.84013
In one line
Fiji's first colonial capital, settled by traders around 1820 on the island of Ovalau. This timber port town witnessed the 1874 cession to Britain and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.

2. Sacred Heart Church

Coordinates
-17.68222, 178.83417
In one line
Built from 1858 by the Marist Fathers, this Gothic Revival church anchors Levuka's waterfront. Its 24-metre stone tower carries four bells and a clock that rings twice every hour, guiding ships through the reef passage.

3. Beach Street

Coordinates
-17.6836, 178.8376
In one line
Levuka's waterfront main street, lined with verandahed timber-and-iron trading buildings from the 19th century. Once the busiest commercial strip in Fiji, it preserves the colonial port's shopfronts, seawall, and harbour-front character almost unchanged.

4. Levuka Town Hall

Coordinates
-17.6833, 178.8373
In one line
Built in 1898 to honour Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Levuka Town Hall served the first municipal government in Fiji. The timber civic hall remains a community gathering place within the town's preserved colonial streetscape.

5. Royal Hotel

Coordinates
-17.6828, 178.837
In one line
In existence by the early 1860s and the oldest operating hotel in the South Pacific, the Royal Hotel keeps its timber verandahs, billiard room, and period interiors. It has welcomed travellers to Levuka for more than a century and a half.

6. Ovalau Club

Coordinates
-17.683, 178.8372
In one line
Fiji's first private members' club, founded in the 19th century, the Ovalau Club preserves a colonial-era bar crowded with old photographs and memorabilia, including a celebrated letter said to have come from a king.

7. Lodge Polynesia (Masonic Lodge)

Coordinates
-17.6825, 178.8369
In one line
Established in 1875, Lodge Polynesia was the first Masonic lodge in Fiji and the oldest in the South Pacific. Its Romanesque Revival building was destroyed by arson during unrest after the 2000 coup, fuelled by local legend.

8. Morris Hedstrom Store

Coordinates
-17.6834, 178.8374
In one line
Built in 1878, the Morris Hedstrom Store is the founding home of a Pacific trading empire begun by two Levuka schoolmates. Its restored timber-and-iron frame now anchors the town's heritage waterfront and houses a community centre.

9. Levuka Community Centre & Museum

Coordinates
-17.68345, 178.83745
In one line
Housed in the restored 1878 Morris Hedstrom store, the Levuka Community Centre and Museum gathers the town's history under one roof, with a Fiji Museum branch, a public library and shared facilities given to the National Trust of Fiji in 1980.

10. Levuka Public School

Coordinates
-17.6815, 178.8348
In one line
Founded in 1879, Levuka Public School was the first public school in Fiji. Its hillside timber buildings educated many of the nation's future leaders in the decades before and after independence, making it a landmark of Fijian education.

11. Marist Convent School

Coordinates
-17.6838, 178.8378
In one line
Established in 1882 by Catholic missionaries and later run by the Marist Sisters, the Marist Convent School is one of Fiji's oldest mission schools. Its stone-and-timber buildings on the Levuka hillside still serve as a working school today.

12. Navoka Methodist Church

Coordinates
-17.6847, 178.8382
In one line
A historic Methodist church rising on the hillside above Levuka, Navoka recalls the powerful Wesleyan mission that spread across nineteenth-century Fiji. Its whitewashed walls and surrounding graves overlook the old colonial port and the reef beyond.

13. Nasova House & Cession Site

Coordinates
-17.6905, 178.843
In one line
At Nasova on 10 October 1874, King Cakobau and twelve other chiefs signed the Deed of Cession handing Fiji to Britain. The cession stones, memorial and Nasova House mark the birthplace of colonial Fiji at the town's southern edge.

14. Provincial Bure (Nasova)

Coordinates
-17.6908, 178.8432
In one line
A traditional thatched Fijian bure standing near the historic cession site at Nasova, the Provincial Bure hosts provincial ceremonies and gatherings.

15. Niukaube Hill

Coordinates
-17.685, 178.839
In one line
Niukaube Hill rises above the north end of Levuka, where Cakobau's short-lived parliament and supreme court once stood in the early 1870s.

16. Queens Wharf

Coordinates
-17.6842, 178.8385
In one line
Queens Wharf reaches into Levuka's reef-sheltered harbour off Beach Street, the colonial capital's main gateway for arriving ships. Built in the 1800s with a timber deck on piles, it once handled copra, sandalwood, and sea cucumber bound for the world.

17. Levuka War Memorial

Coordinates
-17.68355, 178.83755
In one line
The Levuka War Memorial honours the district's dead from the World Wars, a cenotaph set near the waterfront of Fiji's old capital. It marks the service of Fijian and Lomaiviti men who fought far from these quiet shores.

18. Mission Steps (199 Steps)

Coordinates
-17.6819, 178.8344
In one line
The Mission Steps climb Mission Hill above Levuka in a long flight of coral-and-limestone treads, often counted as 199. Built to reach the early mission and the old Methodist buildings on the heights, they reward the climb with a panorama over town and reef.

19. Totoga Creek

Coordinates
-17.6821, 178.8355
In one line
Totoga Creek tumbles down the hills behind Levuka, the town's old source of fresh water and the site of Fiji's first public swimming baths. Its bridge is still a favourite diving spot, and its name recalls a vanished village on the slopes above.

20. Gun Rock

Coordinates
-17.677, 178.834
In one line
Gun Rock is a steep headland rising above Levuka, scarred when a British warship fired on it in 1849 to display its firepower to Fijian chiefs. The marks of that bombardment gave the rock its name and a commanding view over the old port.

21. St John's College, Cawaci

Coordinates
-17.668, 178.831
In one line
St John's College at Cawaci, founded in 1894 by Marist Brothers north of Levuka, is one of Fiji's oldest Catholic mission schools. Its Gothic Revival church and the seaside tomb of Bishop Julian Vidal crown a bluff above the ocean.

22. Bishop's Tomb Mausoleum, Cawaci

Coordinates
-17.6675, 178.8308
In one line
A Gothic Revival mausoleum of whitewashed limestone stands on a grassy bluff above the sea at Cawaci, just north of Levuka. It holds the remains of Fiji's first Catholic bishop and his successor, on the grounds of Saint John's College.

23. Seru Epenisa Cakobau Legacy

Coordinates
-17.68401, 178.84013
In one line
Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, Vunivalu of Bau, was the warlord-chief who united much of Fiji and reigned as its only king from 1871 to 1874. He renounced cannibalism in 1854 and ceded the islands to Britain in 1874.

24. Bau Island

Coordinates
-17.97221, 178.61404
In one line
Bau is a tiny island off the east coast of Viti Levu that became the seat of Fiji's most powerful chiefdom. Home of the Vunivalu and birthplace of standard Fijian, it holds Cakobau's tomb and one of the country's oldest churches.

25. Lomaiviti Province

Coordinates
-17.66667, 178.8
In one line
Lomaiviti Province in Fiji's Eastern Division is a scattered group of islands centered on Ovalau, with Levuka as its main town. Covering about 411 square kilometers, it counted roughly 15,657 people in the 2017 census.

26. Ovalau Island

Coordinates
-17.68806, 178.79056
In one line
Ovalau is Fiji's sixth-largest island, an eroded volcanic crater about 13 kilometers long and 10 wide. Steep green peaks ring the hidden Lovoni Valley, and on its eastern shore sits Levuka, Fiji's first colonial capital.

27. Devil's Thumb (Nadelaiovalau)

Coordinates
-17.685, 178.805
In one line
Devil's Thumb, or Nadelaiovalau, is Ovalau's highest peak at 625 meters, a jagged volcanic neck rising in the island's east. Its spire towers over the village of Tokou and forms the dramatic backdrop to Levuka.

28. Levuka Public Market

Coordinates
-17.6831, 178.8371
In one line
Levuka's public market is the town's everyday heart, where island growers spread taro, cassava, fish, and fruit near the Beach Street waterfront. In a town once Fiji's capital, this is where Ovalau still does its daily shopping.

29. PAFCO Tuna Cannery

Coordinates
-17.686, 178.8405
In one line
The Pacific Fishing Company tuna cannery, formed in 1963 and opened in 1976, is the largest employer on Ovalau, packing canned tuna for distant markets and keeping the old port town economically alive.

30. Levuka Traditional Village

Coordinates
-17.679, 178.8348
In one line
At the northern end of the colonial town stands the traditional Fijian village of Levuka, led by a chief titled Tui Levuka, a direct descendant of the man who welcomed the first European settlers and was honoured as Father of the Europeans.

31. Vagadaci

Coordinates
-17.674, 178.834
In one line
Vagadaci is a Fijian village in the Levuka district at the northern end of Ovalau, with a 2017 population of 315.

32. Draiba

Coordinates
-17.695, 178.842
In one line
Draiba is a small Fijian village on Ovalau, recorded with a population of 202 at the 2017 census. Set along the coast road below the island's steep volcanic hills, it lies a short way from the old colonial capital of Levuka.

33. Lovoni Village

Coordinates
-17.7, 178.8
In one line
Lovoni village lies deep inside Ovalau's volcanic crater, home to a people remembered as the island's first settlers and as a once-independent Fijian kingdom. Twice they burned the coastal town of Levuka, scattering its early European traders.

34. Lovoni Valley Caldera

Coordinates
-17.705, 178.805
In one line
The Lovoni Valley fills the eroded crater at the centre of Ovalau, a flat, river-watered floor ringed by steep volcanic walls rising toward the island's highest peaks. This natural fortress sheltered the Lovoni people, the island's first settlers.

35. Rukuruku Bay

Coordinates
-17.665, 178.77
In one line
Rukuruku is a Fijian village on the northern side of Ovalau, with a population of 334 at the 2017 census and a primary school of its own. It sits on a bay where the reef lagoon meets the steep, forested slopes of the island's volcanic rim.

36. Waitovu Waterfall

Coordinates
-17.67, 178.834
In one line
A freshwater cascade above Waitovu village on Ovalau, a short coastal walk north of Levuka. Spilling from the island's eroded volcanic crater into a cool swimming pool, it draws villagers and walkers in equal measure.

37. Tokou

Coordinates
-17.705, 178.838
In one line
A beachside village south of Levuka on Ovalau, remembered as the first community in Fiji to embrace Catholicism in 1852. Marist priests settled here, and the hillside cemetery holds some of the islands' earliest missionaries.

38. Wainaloka

Coordinates
-17.72, 178.82
In one line
A coastal settlement on the southern reaches of Ovalau, beyond Levuka's main districts.

39. Levuka Old Cemetery

Coordinates
-17.6805, 178.8346
In one line
A nineteenth-century burial ground above Fiji's first colonial capital, where European settlers, traders and notable Levuka figures rest. Weathered headstones, including a small cluster of Jewish graves, trace the cosmopolitan port that briefly ran the islands.

40. Naigani Island

Coordinates
-17.58317, 178.68317
In one line
A small island northwest of Ovalau, home to one village and a resort, fringed by reefs and beaches. Its Lapita pottery site, settled around 900 BC, marks some of the earliest human arrival in the Fiji Islands.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

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  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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