Artist George French Angas painted some of the earliest views of South Australia. Arriving in Adelaide in January 1844, he rapidly set about an extensive series of journeys to the Murray Lakes, Barossa Valley, Fleurieu Peninsula and the South East, capturing his impressions of the young colony-its landscapes, its inhabitants and the flora and fauna.

In 1847 Angas published the folio South Australiaillustrated, which included: Plate 21: 'Coast scene near Rapid Bay. Sunset. Natives fishing with nets'.

Part of the text for the illustration reads 'The accompanying drawing represents the sky at sunset ... during the autumn months. The thunder clouds which had gathered ... became bathed in a radiance of the most intense and exquisite rose colour, which was reflected back upon every object, with a strangely beautiful effect.

Such was the scene I have endeavoured to represent, as witnessed from a small cove near Rapid Bay, at the mouth of the Parananakooka rivulet, on the eastern shores of Gulf St Vincent ... for the purpose of fishing [the inhabitants] use a seine about twenty or thirty feet in length, stretched upon sticks placed crosswise at intervals; a couple of men will drag this net amongst the rocks and shallows where fish are most abundant ...'