Beerbee was born at Waterloo Cattle Station, on the Northern Territory side of the Western Australian border, and like his father before him, spent many years as a cowboy near Rosewood and Kildurk Stations, taking part in numerous cattle transports, via the old Ord River route, to the abattoir at Wyndham Harbour, where the meat was processed for the American hamburger market. 

When the Ord was dammed in 1966, much of the country Beerbee knew and loved from these walks became the floor of Lake Argyle, Australia's largest body of water. 

These lost places feature in many of his works, as they do in this painting.