Despite numerous letters of introduction, he was unable to find congenial employment and finally at the home of Arthur John Baker (1814[6] – 4 July 1900), (Superintendent of the Fire Brigade[7] and his future father-in-law) he was introduced to Captain Hughes (later Sir Walter Watson Hughes) who offered him employment as a gardener at Watervale.
[8] In 1862 he decided to go into business for himself and was so successful that around 1865 he took his brother Frank (by then secretary to the Commissioner of Crown Lands) into partnership.
[9] Their children included: The family home was "The Firs", East Terrace, Adelaide,[20][failed verification] now known as Rymill House, with its frontage on Hutt Street.
Much of their fortune was made in 1878 when they purchased from William King for £11,000 the lease on part of the land bounded by Pirie Street, Gawler Place, McHenry Street, part of town acres 169 and 170 purchased by George McHenry in 1837.
In 1879 they helped found a new Stock Exchange with G. Dutton Green as its head, on land known as "King's timber yard" in Pirie Street; they hired Edmund W. Wright to design the new building.