 He followed various occupations and when 16 was shepherding near York for £10 a year.Later he saved enough to send for his mother and the rest of his family, took up land, was one of the first settlers to open up the north-west of Australia, by becoming a pastoral squatter on the traditional lands of the indigenous Nyamal around the De Grey River in 1863a venture which failed after several years.In 1863 he was sending stock by sailing ships to Carnarvon.