AHC: Colonisation of New Guinea

The challenge is to give the island of New Guinea (north of Australia) a white/non-native majority.
Ive just started wondering why European colonisation of Australia and New Zealand was successful in establishing European-majority countries but a relatively similar island in the same area was not. After all it was ruled by three European empires over its history (British/Australian, German, Dutch) so why was there no emigration there.
Bonus points if you can unite the island into one county too, and try do it with no genocide and equal rights among the ethnic groups.
POD can be anytime (most likely to be pre-1900 though), and the white majority should be achieved before the 21st century.
Good luck
 
It's not really that similar to Australia (at least, not the parts that are densely inhabited) or New Zealand. It has a tropical monsoon climate. Also, its soil is generally poor. Why go there when you can live in a less sweltering climate zone, with better soils, farther south?
 
Maybe that if gold and cooper deposits are somehow found earlier, you may see something similar to what happened in New Caledonia, rather than Australia or New Zealand, with Europeans being for around 3/8 or 1/3 of the population.

But as funnyhat said, climate would be harsher, so...I think you may reach less important ratio, around 1/4 to 1/3
 
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