While working on a special report about the late journalist, author, historian , artist and publisher , Glenville Pike, who did much to popularise the history of the Northern Territory and North Queensland , an uexpected example of his productive output surfaced. 
From the diverse library of the German Queen of the Jungle came the 1986 self published book , The Golden Leaf , by Wilma Wheatley , novelettes and short stories from the l960s , edited by Pike , published through his own Pinevale Publications , printed in Hong Kong.
Colin Roderick, Emeritus Professor of English , James Cook University , Townsville , reviewed the book and described it thus : Love , hate , patriotism , partisan rivalry, conflict and honour are set against the background of the Far North tobacco lands ..."The characters are life-like, the settings real, they spring from the soil and have the air of belonging to it as Shlunke's stories of the Riverina ."
The author's note thanks Pike for editing the book and Ivy Zappala for the cover painting . Zappala, nee Hanson, was born in the Gordonvale Hospital , near Cairns , in 1933 , one of her paintings in parliament house . A party following the christening of a baby boy is dealt with in the first story, The Flag of Croatia, in which the tensions of Yugoslavia are aired. It takes place in a tobacco stringing shed where bottles of preserved venomous snakes are stored , killed on the farm by the previous owner.
