He began his career as a centre forward, later played at wing half and finished up at full back.
[1] As a teenager he was a competition swimmer,[2] and played football as a forward with South Bank's youth teams.
[4] In the 1947–48 Football League season, he appeared once as an amateur in the Third Division North for Darlington, playing at centre forward in a 2–0 defeat away to Southport on 8 September 1947.
[8] The family settled in Melbourne, where Harburn continued his trade as a boilermaker and played football for Victorian State League club Hakoah.
[9] On 15 October 1970, Harburn was working on the construction of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne when a 2,000-tonne span collapsed, falling onto the mud of the river below.