and 30 January 1943. At the end of the war, eight Catalinas were scuttled in the lake. The island was later visited by a series of Danish scientific expeditions.

The present-day inhabitants say their ancestors, Kaitu'u, arrived around 1400AD from Ubea, now Wallis and Futuna Islands, crossed the Pacific Ocean and settled on Rennell and Bellona Islands, in the Solomon Islands. One of the villages in Lake Tegano is called Hutuna which is the Rennellese interpretation of Wallis and Futuna.