in 1882 by the Queen's University of Ireland, upon its dissolution.. Deane also studied engineering for two years and obtained his diploma at King's College London as an occasional student.

[1] After two years in the office of (later Sir) John Fowler at London, Deane was engaged by Waring Brothers from 1869 to 1871 on the Hungarian railways, and from 1871 to 1873 was chief technical assistant at the shipbuilding works of the Danube Steam Navigation Company, Althofen, Hungary.

One of his significant advances was the introduction of pioneer standards that lowered construction costs on low-traffic country lines.

In April 1906, he became a consultant to the Commonwealth Oil Corporation and oversaw the survey and construction of the Wolgan Valley Railway.

On 25 March 1908, he was appointed consulting engineer to the Commonwealth Government in connection with the survey of the transcontinental railway between Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie.

[1] He had been closely associated with the transcontinental railway since 1903 when he represented New South Wales as chairman of a conference of Engineers-in-Chief on that matter.

In conjunction with Joseph Maiden, Deane published a series of papers on native timbers, and wrote frequently on forestry and botanical subjects.