Many people have contributed in various ways to this project.
We acknowledge the financial support of Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) throughout this project. The receipt of an ABRS grant enabled employment of the technical assistant, Tara Hopley, who took primary responsibility for data accumulation and coordinating production of the key.
In particular we would like to thank the Director of the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (CPBR), Judy West the driving force behind the key, for her continued support of the project, her perseverance and tolerance throughout the saga.
We especially thank Robyn Barker, Peter Bostock, Alec Pridgeon, Helen Thompson and Annette Wilson for reviewing the key. They went to considerable length to examine most or all sections covered in the key as well as testing its performance with a range of species. Their detailed comments were generally encouraging and constructive and we are most appreciative of their time and input. We are also very grateful to Phillip Cribb of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, for writing the Foreword.
Numerous people tested the key throughout its developmental stages and contributed greatly to the final product. We are particularly grateful to Hans and Annie Wapstra, Ben Wallace, Dean Rouse and Terena Lally for testing the final prototype, finding shortcomings and making suggestions for improvement.
We also thank the numerous students who participated in the CPBR Botanical Intern program over the last two years, acting as guinea pigs to test various aspects and prototypes of the key, providing valuable comments, suggestions for improvement, alternate interpretation of characters, all significant aspects leading to refinement and improvement of the overall product.
Photographs were obtained from various sources. These are credited where used but we are particularly pleased to have access to the excellent slide collections of Ron Tunstall and John Fanning, both now sadly deceased. Others who contributed photos to the project include David Banks, Lex Barton, David Beardsell, John Brock, Bruce Gray, Garry Brockman, Andrew Brown, Alwin Clements, Chris French, Ron Heberle, Jeff Jeanes, Jean Johnson, Len Lawler, Noel Longmore, Ian Matthias, Northern Territory Conservation Commission, Lewis Roberts, Murray Rohlach, Hans and Annie Wapstra.
We thank Robin Hill for the line drawing of Dichopus insignis.
Many people sent fresh material of orchid species which were used for coding or for testing the key. For this material we thank David Banks, Bob Bates, Colin Bower, Peter Branwhite, Garry Brockman, Lachlan Copeland, Bruce Dalyell, Bill Dowling, Michael Duncan, Chris French, Bruce Gray, Michael Harrison, Bill Holzinger, Cathy and Malcolm Houston, John Riley, Peter Metcalfe, Adrian and Myra Morton, Geoff Nevill, Andrew Pritchard, Helen Richards, Dean Rouse, Alan Stephenson, Ron Tunstall, Hans and Annie Wapstra. All collections were either made from cultivated material or under permit from state and commonwealth agencies.
We thank all of our colleagues at the CPBR/Australian National Herbarium (ANH) and Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) for their support during the project. Especially to the EUCLID team of John Connors and Andrew Slee who were consulted regularly during the developmental stages and Kirsten Cowley who provided assistance on nomenclatural matters and proofreading of fact sheets. Catherine Jordan at the ANBG library for continued support and Jim Croft who contributed early inspiration to the project.
The efforts of Tim Mulcahy and Barbara Corsini in maintaining the extensive orchid collection in the ANBG and bringing flowering specimens to our attention are acknowledged.
David Jones is grateful to Barbara Jones for her enduring support and to Roger Heady, formerly of the Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, for help with electron microscopy and the preparation of the micrographs that are included in the key. We also thank Andrew Pritchard for supplying details of the distribution of Disa in Victoria.
Matt Taylor from the Centre for Biological Information Technology at the University of Queensland has helped us greatly with the Lucid software and the usual encouragement and support was provided by Kevin Thiele.
Carl Davies, Sandie McIntosh, Amy Wilson and Gill Cosgrove, staff of the Visual Resources Unit, and staff of the Communications Unit, CSIRO Plant Industry, are thanked for helpful advice, access to their facilities, and for their support of the project.
John Manger and Jennifer Griggs from CSIRO Publishing helped with the final compilation.