He had studied civil engineering in Britain, but finding little demand for the profession, turned to land surveying, with offices at 65 King William Street adjacent the Bank of Australasia from 1850.
He also acted as a gold buyer for some of the banks, was for a time a director of the Moonta mines, and managed "Green's Exchange Room", which operated from May 1853 to at least November 1889.
Green entered into partnership with J. H. Parr as auctioneers and commission agents sometime before September 1857 and W. G. Luxmoore joined before November that year.
[9] In 1854 Green remodelled the interior, to make a large open room suitable for meetings, concerts and receptions, though the pillars supporting the roof structure made it unsuitable for use as a ballroom.
Green's lease elapsed shortly after his son George Dutton Green and others erected the Pirie Street Exchange, and the site reverted to T. G. Waterhouse, for whom Broken Hill Chambers (opened 1890), was built on the site by William McLean[12][13] of the Melbourne firm of McLean Brothers, Rigg & Co.[14] to the design of English & Soward.