This hand-coloured panorama was printed on eight joined panels. It shows the view across King George Sound from the summit of Mount Clarence in Western Australia. The detailed image shows geographical and distinctive geological features, including granite outcrops. In the foreground, species of indigenous flora are shown, including examples of Banksia, Zamia, Xanthorrhoea, Kingia, and Nuytsia (known locally as the Christmas tree). In the middle ground, Aboriginal Australians, presumably the King Ya-nup (Noongar), are shown hunting and fishing and in friendly interaction with British soldiers, most likely from the 63rd Regiment of Foot to which the artist, Robert Dale, was attached on surveying duties. A small township is shown, which is now the location of present-day Albany. Beyond, Oyster Bay, King George Sound and Princess Royal Harbour stretch out against the backdrop of the Porongurup and Stirling Ranges.
The scenes of cultural and racial harmony depicted in the panorama were doubtless meant to encourage further settlement to this remote part of the British Empire. However, Dale’s vision is sharply undermined by information contained within an accompanying pamphlet. This not only provides addition information regarding the features of the scene but also recounts the events leading up to the beheading of an Aboriginal warrior, Yagan. He had attacked and killed a number of settlers during resistance to the British colonisation of the region. (His back was also skinned as a record of indigenous markings.) In 1833, Dale brought Yagan’s severed head back to London, where the surgeon and antiquarian Thomas Pettigrew, an expert on Egyptian mummies, displayed it at parties and encouraged guests to buy Dale’s printed panorama as a souvenir. Yagan's head was eventually buried at Everton Cemetery in Liverpool. However, following a campaign by the Noongar of Western Australia, Yagan's remains were repatriated in 1997 and buried accpording to local tradition.
Unmounted in board covers.