Captain Neptune Blood — A Quiet Pioneer of New Guinea
When we think of Papua New Guinea’s modern history, we often focus on the explorers, kiaps, missionaries, soldiers, and scientists whose names appear in official reports and glossy archives.
But just beneath the surface lies another layer of history — the stories of men and women whose contributions were quiet, enduring, and often unrecorded.
Indeed, they helped lay the early foundations of Independence.
One such figure is Captain Neptune Newcombe Beresford Lloyd Blood, better known
simply as “Nep” Blood.
Kora, our ChatGPT AI cultural guide and wantok has taken a deep dive through history to help us learn more about this legendary quiet achiever.
Early Years and Pre-War Service
Born in 1907, Neptune Blood began his career before the
Pacific War reached New Guinea’s shores. Drawing on his bushcraft, language
skills, and deep familiarity with the interior, he entered service in the New
Guinea Constabulary as a Superintendent of Police prior to the outbreak of
World War II.
At a time when the colonial administration relied heavily on small, mobile patrol teams, Nep distinguished himself as a man who could travel deep into the country — places few outsiders had ever gone — and return with both the people and the story.
War and Rescue in the Sepik
When war came to the Pacific, Nep enlisted in the Australian
New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU) on 14 February 1942, rising to the rank
of Captain.
Susan Blood, his daughter, shared a personal recollection that reveals the quiet heroism of those years. She recalls how her father “usually found [downed pilots] and led them to safety… or carried them,” describing one trek that lasted more than sixty days through the jungle with no supplies except what he and his police orderly could find.
It was during one of these Sepik rescue missions that Nep is believed to have encountered an orchid that would later become famous among collectors: Dendrobium lasianthera, also known as the Sepik Blue.
The escape
from Japanese forces led to Chambri Lakes, where Nep
Blood found the orchid in abundance. Such was his passion for nature, that it
took precedence over his fight for survival.
Reverend H.M.R. Rupp had previously formally described and named the orchid species — but its discovery in these parts is widely credited to Captain Blood.
A Naturalist’s Second Life
After the war, Nep briefly returned to administration as a Patrol
Officer, but the call of the natural world proved stronger. Sir Edward
Hallstrom, the Australian philanthropist and aviary enthusiast, invited him to
help establish an experimental sheep farm in the Wahgi Valley at Nondugl in the
Central Highlands.
In 1949, National Geographic published an article titled “Sheep
Airlift in New Guinea,” written under the name “Ned Blood.” It chronicled the
remarkable effort to airlift sheep into the Highlands and build a sustainable
agricultural project in what was then one of the most remote regions on earth.
But for Nep Blood, this wasn’t just a job. It was the
beginning of a long chapter devoted to orchids, birds, aquariums, gardens, and
conservation. He built a large orchid house, freshwater and saltwater
aquariums, and a sprawling English-style garden on the farm — an unlikely but
beautiful oasis in the Highlands of PNG.
His daughter Susan wrote:
You would have loved to see his Orchid House - and his freshwater aquariums, and saltwater aquariums, and his birds and his animals and butterflies, and when we were in the Highlands of New Guinea, he had 20 acres of English Country Gardens - which were truly a sight to see.
Nep Blood’s legacy is etched quietly into the natural and
cultural history of Papua New Guinea.
He is credited with the 'discovery' (documentation) of Dendrobium
lasianthera, a species now cherished by orchid growers
worldwide.
The subspecies Epimachus meyeri bloodi, a Bird of Paradise,
also known as the Central Highlands Brown Sicklebill, was named in his honour —
a lasting tribute to his contribution to ornithology.
His daughter Susan wrote:
Dad discovered a Bird of Paradise,which was named after him,
a very 'ugly' bird as I said to Dad, "why couldn't you find something
outstandingly beautiful?"
His reply: “because they are garish and everyone sees them, I look behind the scenes and find the hidden beauty, and the ones everybody tends to overlook or forget“.
He sent many hundreds of specimens to the Sydney Museum ...and of course with all the inhabitants from New Guinea at Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney...also in Sweden… and Singapore.
His wartime efforts to rescue pilots in the Sepik remain part of the oral histories of those who served.
Captain
Neptune Blood was mentioned in despatches for his service in the Second World
War with the Australian
New Guinea Administrative Unit. The "Mention in Despatches" is a
British and Commonwealth award for bravery or distinguished service.
And his role in Hallstrom’s Nondugl project remains a
milestone in PNG’s early agricultural development.
In the words of his daughter Susan:
My father was a very private man, and did not think that
anything he did was of any importance to the grand scheme of things.
Yet, over forty years in Papua New Guinea, Nep Blood helped shape the country’s scientific, agricultural, and wartime history in ways that are still coming to light.
Closing Thoughts
Nep Blood was not a man of fanfare or headlines. He belonged
to that quiet, skilled generation who moved through history without leaving
loud footprints. His story — stitched from family recollections, scattered
archives, and a handful of magazine pages — reminds us how much of our shared
past lives outside official narratives.
May the orchids continue to bloom, and the song of the brown
sicklebill continue to echo through the misty highlands — a living memory of Captain
Nep Blood.
*Kora is our ChatGPT (AI) cultural guide and wantok from Papua New Guinea. (Direction and additional editing: Glenn Armstrong)
3. Captain Neptune Blood's memorial plaque, Queensland Garden of Remembrance, Dendrobium lasianthera, and the Central Highlands Brown Sicklebill bird-of-paradise.
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