Hubert Wilkins used a Ford van especially modified for his expedition. It could be used as a caravan as well as accommodate specimen and supply boxes. In 1923 Wilkins had been asked by the British Museum to undertake an expedition in northern Australia to collect specimens of fauna and flora. He had caught the attention of the British Museum through the quality of the collections he had made on South Georgia as part of Ernest Shackleton's Quest expedition of 1922. Wilkins had discovered a new variety of finch, Wilkins bunting (Nesospiza wilkinsi) and a species of tree (Sophora tetraptera) found only in South America and New Zealand.

His assistants on this expedition were Vladimir Kotoff, JE Young and Oscar Cornwell. They travelled extensively across northern Queensland and in the Northern Territory and found, much as feared that many species were scarce, their habitat destroyed by bush clearance. Wilkins was outspoken about farming practices that were destroying the bush and the environmental degradation that was threatening the very livelihood of the farmers that were perpetrating it. He also spoke out against the treatment of the Aboriginal people.