During the early 1900s (chronology unknown) is recorded as having run a drapery business in Duchess, Queensland (in Cloncurry Shire), working as a miner in Broken Hill (where he worked underground to learn about miners' ailments), and as a camel driver visiting Brisbane, Bourke in New South Wales, Farina, South Australia, the Nullarbor Plain, Townsville, Queensland and Broome, Western Australia.