Word: taipans
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...minor miracle. Beneath a giant Moreton Bay fig tree in Port Moresby (pop. 7,000), the Post's termite-honeycombed headquarters has been flooded eight times during monsoons. Twice the composing room has been invaded by serpents-a ten-foot python, a rare and venomous taipan-which were pelted to death by ingots of type metal. One night a horde of winged ants, attracted by the lights, swarmed in to lay a living veneer on the Linotype machines, jam the works with their bodies; a mechanic imported from Australia had to be shipped home with a nervous breakdown...