A view of Sydney Cove, looking inland towards the head of the cove and the woodland around the Tank Stream, which is positioned close to the centre of the composition. The entrace to the cove is demarcated by wharves to left and right, and a wide track leads up the hillside from the wharf on the left. Further to the left of this track is Government House and its gardens, and on the right a row of houses leads down to the Tank Stream. There are a number of buildings and smaller houses on the right hand side, with the hospital and its gardens by the shore-line at the extreme right. The built and cultivated areas are enclosed by fences, and clearly differentiated from the uncleared and wooded areas by the use of paler colours and regular brush marks.
The various buildings are numbered although there is no key, however they were identified by William Dixson in 1923 (see general note). An Aboriginal family are depicted paddling a canoe in the centre foreground. Behind them two small boats are moored near the wharf on the left, and four others can be seen pulled up on the shore nearby. The sea is represented by a gradated blue wash with a pale band of yellow between the wharves, overlaid with grey horizontal brush marks in the foreground. The sky is a gradated wash of blue through yellow to white. The drawing is framed by a triple-banded border, the central band coloured with a pink wash and the others black. The drawing is titled in brown ink in a panel below the drawing and inside the frame.