The war on malaria and Nora Heysen's documentation of Australian medical research through art between 1943 and 1945

• With the expansion of the Second World War into the Pacific in 1941, and due to the deleterious impact of malarial infection on fighting capacity, the Australian Army devoted significant resources to new research into the prevention and treatment of malaria between 1943 and 1945 by forming the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit in Cairns, Queensland. • The documentation of this research became a significant subject for leading Australian artist Nora Heysen, when she was commissioned as the first female war artist by the Australian War Memorial in 1943.