Ulverstone presents a moment in Australian working life at one of the many little seaports in the north-coast of Tasmania. Two Tasmanian Trading Ketches are berthed at a wharf on a river down which forest logs have floated: a sailor climbs rigging, a man stands among hewn timbers waiting to be loaded on deck. A large log awaits export to Launceston or the mainland and another, loaded on a jinker hauled by bullocks, has arrived at the wharf, where shadows suggest midday. And a small puff of smoke suggests preparation of lunch in a below-deck galley.