While in Torres Strait in 1849, Stanley recorded in his journal sighting "a mountain range that appeared to be mountains stacked on mountains that ran along the mainland coast and disappeared to the north west" which he named the Owen Stanley Range.

That night wrote "no painter can ever give due effect to that sunset" he had just witnessed.

Brierly's journal notes also show that he found the range to be a challenging subject to paint.

Brierly Island in the Louisiade Group was named for the artist who, along with the ornithologist John MacGillivary and young surgeon, Thomas Henry Huxley, were Stanley’s intellectual companions on the two journeys.

Sadly, aged only 38, Owen Stanley was found dead in his Sydney bed one morning in 1850, but Brierly went on to become Sir Oswald Brierly (1817-94), official marine artist to Queen Victoria.

Huxley (1825-95) became a noted academic scientist and defender of Charles Darwin when his ground-breaking Theory of Evolution was attacked for its then radical theories.

My book From Eden to Windsor Castle - the amazing life of Sir Oswald Brierly has been written to mark the bi-centenary of his birth.

As a young man, I worked for the PNG National Broadcasting Commission in Port Moresby, in the shadow of the Owen Stanley Range between 1974 and 1976, also spending time in Lae and Rabaul.

The book’s title, From Eden to Windsor Castle, is reflects the journey Brierly took from his first job in Australia to his last job in England .

Brierly sailed to Sydney in 1841-42 with the wealthy London stockbroker, Ben Boyd (the subject of my first book published in 1995 and now in a second edition). The following year he took charge of Boyd's whaling operations at Eden on the south coast of New South Wales.

Boyd's spectacular bankruptcy and grizzly death - he lost one-million pounds in 10 years and was eaten by cannibals in Vanuatu - left Brierly destitute. He accepted a position with Owen Stanley to earn some money and eventually return home to England.

Brierly's last job was working for Queen Victoria in her royal residence at Windsor Castle, which to this day houses the largest collection of Brierly's paintings. He was also appointed as Keeper of the Painted Hall at the historic Greenwich naval establishment near London.

His many adventures included surviving an attack by islanders and rescuing Barbara Crawford Thompson from a Torres Strait Island five years after she was marooned. Although struggling to remember English, she helped Brierly and others compile the first dictionary of the local language.

Brierly eventually returned home with Admiral Keppel who introduced him to the Royal Family. He was Keppel's artist during the Crimean War and later became official painter on Royal Navy ships captained by Queen Victoria's son, Prince Alfred.

Brierly accompanied Prince Alfred on the first Royal Tour of Australia in 1867-8, and was nearby when there was an attempted assassination of the prince in Sydney.

This is a great story of a dramatic and inspirational life. The book is illustrated with some fine colour reproductions of Brierly’s work.