diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index f4b9343574..54b0f92448 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -162,6 +162,8 @@ script:
     fi
 
   # Split the organisation out of the slug. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/5257398/741316 for description.
+  # NOTE: a *separate* "export" command appears to be necessary here : A command of the
+  #   form "export ORG=.." failed to define ORG for the following command (?!)
   - >
     ORG=$(echo ${TRAVIS_REPO_SLUG} | cut -d/ -f1);
     export ORG
@@ -171,8 +173,7 @@ script:
   # When we merge a change to SciTools/iris, we can push docs to github pages.
   # At present, only the Python 3.7 "doctest" job does this.
   # Results appear at https://scitools-docs.github.io/iris/<<branchname>>/index.html
-  - >
-    if [[ "${ORG}" == 'SciTools' && "${TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE}" == 'push' && "${PUSH_BUILT_DOCS}" == 'true' ]]; then
+  - if [[ "${ORG}" == 'SciTools' && "${TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE}" == 'push' && "${PUSH_BUILT_DOCS}" == 'true' ]]; then
       cd ${INSTALL_DIR};
       pip install doctr;
       doctr deploy --deploy-repo SciTools-docs/iris --built-docs docs/iris/build/html