The area is environmentally very interesting because it contains a rich diversity of vegetation and it provides a habitat for many birds and animals. This is despite defence works near the site during World War 2, the razing of the mangroves for housing development in the 1970s, the devastation of Cyclone Tracy and the clearing of the native bush for the construction of campus buildings. The site is not large and the administration has always given priority to the construction of much-needed buildings. Nevertheless there is interest in the campus environment among staff and students and among people in the neighbourhood. There is little in the way of documentation about the campus environment except for one report and a series of aerial photographs, dating from 1941, taken by the Lands Department.
Oral evidence is the main way of attempting to plug gaps in the written record.
There is no oral history programme at NTU so we have been interviewing people ourselves. This is solely for the purposes of compiling the history and is not being done to provide an oral history collection for the University. We have found that interviews provide useful information but we also recognise that oral evidence has its own problems. Not surprisingly, people often cannot remember exact dates and the details of negotiations which happened many years ago even when they were principal actors in the events concerned. Opinions and gossip relayed in the course of an interview can provide useful background information but have to be carefully assessed against other sources.