During the months of March to April, 1986 the Commonwealth Quarantine Service conducted a surface surveillance patrol around the northern coastline of the Northern Territory. As has been the custom in previous surveys, an invitation was extended for a representative from the Medical Entomology Branch to accompany the Quarantine personnel. The leg of the survey chosen for entomology participation was that from
Nhulunbuy, southward into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and return to Nhulunbuy, with a total of eleven days on patrol. Unfortunately, due to weather and tide conditions, the survey was able to visit only two outstations where the populations were small, and the anticipated visit to Numbulwar had to be abandoned due to inaccessability and lack of suitable anchorage. Details of the actual itinerary are shown in Appendix 1.
Neither of the two communities visited in the course of the survey were considered at risk of introduction of the dengue fever mosquito owing to the lack of artificial breeding sites available.