About the Author
The author, Jim Darley, lived for some years in Canada. Perhaps the lone cherry tree in his garden there inspired him to start, in northern Australia, a collection of tropical fruit trees, and this has become a consuming interest.
For the past eighteen years Jim and his family have enjoyed a one acre garden adjoining the Ross River near Townsville, North Queensland. This garden harbours a surprisingly large and varied collection of tropical fruit trees. For many years he has a keenly assimilated facts about exotic tropical fruit and nuts.
In 1981 Jim become foundation chairperson of the Townsville Branch of the Rare Fruit Council and he has maintained various position on the Branch’s Executive since.
In 1982 he wrote an Australian Bicentennial proposal for a palmetum in Townsville. This palmetum is now one of the world’s outstanding palm collections. Professionally, Jim has written papers and made a major contributions to a botanical book in electron microscopy.
Experimenting in the kitchen is another of Jim’s favourite activities; he constantly modifies his recipes and records with interest the varied reactions of his friends and neighbours as a taste testers.
He has wide experience in photography and has produced all the illustration in this book – most of which were taken in that garden by the Ross River.