Melbourne from Wellington Parade East Melbourne looking north west 1872

Burn's depiction of Melbourne from Wellington Parade is suffused with light, a characteristic of his work. The rural character of the foreground, with a shepherd herding sheep to graze in the Yarra parklands adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, contrasts with the horse omnibus making its way up the hill past the then-fenced Fitzroy Gardens.

The most prominent structure in the painting is the tower of the Independent Church, now St Michael's, designed by architect Joseph Reed and completed in 1867. Also visible is the shorter spire of the original Scots' Church, built in 1841 to the design of Samuel Jackson. Scots' Church was demolished shortly after Burn's painting, and then rebuilt in 1873–74. Further to the left, and also in Collins Street, are the towers of St Enoch's Presbyterian Church (demolished in 1912) and the Melbourne Town Hall. The parkland on the left of the painting became the site of Jolimont Station.