The painting depicts three boys set among the buildings in an empty town; two playing cricket and the other watching them.

The National Gallery of Australia describes the painting as "one of the most original and haunting images in all Australian art.

Leonard Voss Smith, an art dealer who often worked for Hutchinson, spoke to Drysdale who was then painting in the town of Hill End in the Central West region of New South Wales.

The next day Hutchinson reconsidered and rehired Voss Smith, after satisfying himself that Drysdale was a respected artist in Australia.

"[6] The National Gallery of Australia claim that the work "succeeds as art by abandoning any pretence to illustrative realism.