The daisies that paint Armidale hillsides white in summer are a pungent reminder of life-saving efforts on the home front during the height of World War II.
The plants – now considered a weed – were cultivated from 1940 onwards at the New England University College (NEUC), a predecessor of the University of New England, which supplied pyrethrum for making anti-malarial insecticides.
Tended mostly by female students and civilians, it was one of the first pyrethrum crops in Australia and played a pivotal role in helping to protect thousands of Australian servicemen toiling in the humid jungles of Papua New Guinea, where anopheles mosquitoes posed a constant threat.
"Australia had previously sourced most of its pyrethrum from Japan and South-East Asia, but after the war broke out we had to have a go at growing it ourselves," said UNE archivist Bill Oates.
"We had the forerunner of the CSIRO based at NEUC, enough space to grow a commercial quantity and local expertise in grazier Don Shand.
“One of our early lecturers, Consett Davis, was also part of the Tropical Scientific Service in New Guinea."
But pyrethrum was not the only ‘drug crop’ grown. The cooler conditions also proved suitable for cultivating opium poppies.
"Staff carried out many of the early trials that enabled opium to be grown in larger quantities elsewhere in Australia to meet the soaring demand for medicines," Bill said.
"By the end of the war a large amount of opium was being grown on mainland Australia. While our New England crop was small, it was important in providing proof of concept.
"The NEUC Advisory Council minutes record the details of the trials of both the pyrethrum and opium crops.
“In fact, when the army sought to take over the university college to turn it into a war hospital, opponents argued that it would shut down valuable war-time research."
An article in The ABC Weekly in December 1943 described how the growing of "food and medicinal supplies for the Fighting Forces" was vital to boosting "morale and fighting strength".
Armidale grazier Don Shand was a major contributor to the trials and cultivation of both plants, but is perhaps better known for developing the Women's Agricultural Security Production Service (or WASPS) to meet farm labour shortages in the absence of male workers.
The WASPS were the lesser known sisters of the Australian Women's Land Army.
"In the early stages of the war, students and teachers of the NEUC and Armidale Teachers' College (ATC) were stumping up and taking on a lot of responsibility both on campus and within the broader community," Bill said.
"But by 1942 most of the males had been drafted and the WASPS kept much of the vegetable production going.
“By planting and harvesting opium and pyrethrum, they helped to provide important pain relief for injured soldiers and saved thousands from the risk of contracting malaria."
Postscript: The Armidale Teachers’ College lost 68 students or alumni in WWII and NEUC four, including Consett Davis, who was killed in an aircraft crash in PNG while carrying out his medical research.
