The AKARI Deep Field South (ADF-S) is a large extragalactic survey field that is covered by multiple instruments, from optical to far-IR and radio. I summarise recent results in this and related fields prompted by the release of the Herschel far-IR/submm images, including studies of cold dust in nearby galaxies, the identification of strongly lensed distant galaxies, and the use of colour selection to find candidate very high redshift sources. I conclude that the potential for significant new results from the ADF-S is very great. The addition of new wavelength bands in the future, eg. from Euclid, SKA, ALMA and elsewhere, will boost the importance of this field still further.