S Elliott Napier’s On the Barrier Reef: A Story of Australia’s Coral Wonderland (1928) and TC Roughley’s Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef (1936) inspired Kenneth Macqueen’s trip to the reef in 1938. He travelled there with a group that included his friend and long-time fishing companion, Dr John Smyth.

This is one of only two known watercolours by Macqueen in which he depicted the reef itself. The artwork reveals the natural wonder’s remarkable structure, with the steep precipice of live coral falling away from the plateau to the depths below.