AustLit

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

'Professor Ernest Shrimpton went to Papau in May, 1942. It was his eighth excursion to little explored parts of the world to study botany generally and the orchis genus of monocotyledonons plants, in particular. His University research grant was subsidised by the Commonwealth Government, with additional contributions from eight noted orchidists. War in the South-West Pacific at that time was dangerous, but he was resolutely determined to set out. If the movements of the Japanese, who had taken Rabaul four months before, were unpredictable, surely Nature herself was always unpredictable? Against the hazards of war he staked the true prospector's hope of rich discovery. He selected his native guides and carriers at Port Moresby, mainly because he himself had a smattering of Motu. Orders not understood in times of emergency or crisis could mean the failure of a mission or death in these strange, uncivilised regions.'