High-quality limited facsimile edition. The original edition was published 1885 to commemorate the raising of the British Flag in Port Moresby in 1884.

High-quality limited facsimile edition. The original edition was published 1885 to commemorate the raising of the British Flag in Port Moresby in 1884.

Admired as much for its technical virtuosity as its beauty, this work has been called the first example of Australian photo-journalism: 'the most magnificent example of an Australian work in this genre, the high point in relation to which all other examples can be considered' (Holden, Photography in Colonial Australia, p. 24). The photographs all date from the 1884 expedition, where Commodore Erskine proclaimed a British protectorate over the south coast of New Guinea.

Although unattributed, all of the images were taken by the staff of the New South Wales Government Printing Office.