[1] The painting is part of the National Gallery of Victoria's Australian art collection and exhibited in the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square in Melbourne.

[1][2] McCubbin painted the work en plein air near Fontainebleau — his home in Mount Macedon, northwest of Melbourne — using specially dug trenches to lower the canvas.

[3] While inspecting the painting by torchlight in November 2020, Michael Varcoe-Cocks, the National Gallery of Victoria’s head of conservation, noticed a shadow of an odd shape on the surface of the centre panel.

The National Gallery of Victoria purchased the painting the following year for 367 pounds and 10 shillings, using funds from the Felton Bequest.

Upon seeing The Pioneer at the National Gallery of Victoria for the first time, Katharine Susannah Prichard declared, "Some day I will tell the story of that picture."

[8] The painting has been described as "self-consciously nationalistic; proud of the prosperity of the fine city seen in the background - Its mood of quiet optimism is unqualified.