Although this scene was on Mount William Station, von Guérard chose to paint it as a primeval landscape, as though he was the first European to come across it. Von Guérard's pictures are often underpinned by geometric compositions that enhance their beauty, dignity and sense of timelessness. In this case, the motif is the diamond formed by the clouds and the illuminated area of the foreground. A subsidiary diamond shape is made up of Mount William and its shadow.