He moved to Melbourne in 1941 and took up a position under the Naval Board;[2] and he went on to see active service in the Royal Australian Air Force from 1942 to 1946.

[3] A star half-forward with St Patrick's College, he trained with Richmond Football Club in the 1943 pre-season,[4][5] and was placed on their supplementary list at the start of the 1943 season.

[18] At 15 years of age he was selected to play in the Ballarat Cricket Association's (senior) team that competed in the Provincial Group of the March 1939 Country Week Carnival in Melbourne.

Bowling leg breaks slightly faster than usual, he showed good control in his first senior match.

At North Melbourne on Saturday he took four for 5 off 6.3 overs, making great pace off the wicket and turning slightly from the leg.

Later in the day at the Shield game at St. Kilda the greasy ball slipped from Pat Crawford's hand as he approached the bowling crease.

Under the laws of cricket a batsman is entitled to hit any ball considered by the umpire to have been delivered that comes to rest in front of the batting wicket.

His length is usually impeccable and without any doubt his inclusion is an insurance against the failure of our other leg spinners [viz., Doug Ring and Richie Benaud], coupled with the thought that he may even force his claims to a place in the eleven on his own prowess."

[37][38][39][40] Although cricket writer Tom Goodman thought that Hill's selection was "a surprise" and "a gamble",[41] former Australian champion spin-bowler Bill "Tiger" O'Reilly, commended the Australian selectors for "[their] effort to tighten up the distressing state of our spin attack" and expressed his view that "if Hill can adapt himself to the English conditions he will be a certain choice for the Test attack on tour".

[43]In its October 1974 obituary, The Cricketer described his action as follows:[44] ...Jack Hill, 51, who died in Melbourne on 11 August, was a topspin bowler who took seven wickets in two Tests at Trent Bridge and Old Trafford in 1953.

Lifting his front foot high, almost a goose-step, Hill delivered with a leg-break roll, but needed responsive turf for the ball to turn at his pace.

The Australian XI, made up of Lindsay Hassett (captain), Arthur Morris (vice captain), Ron Archer, Richie Benaud, Alan Davidson, Jim de Courcy, Jack Hill, Graeme Hole, Bill Johnston, Gil Langley, (cricketer), and Colin McDonald.

Hill had been selected as twelfth man; however, he replaced Ray Lindwall in the team, who was indisposed from having a tooth extracted the day before.

The remainder of the squad were used to strengthen the opposition, and Ian Craig, Keith Miller, Neil Harvey, Doug Ring and Don Tallon all played for the combined Northern Tasmanian side.

[60] In his three match Test career he had taken 8 wickets — Trevor Bailey (twice), Don Kenyon (twice), Peter May, Tom Graveney, Bill Edrich, and the West Indian John Holt[61][62] — had taken two catches, and had scored 21 runs.

In 1956, whilst still in the Victorian State Squad,[63] he was associated with a move by Lindsay Hassett to open up a Cricket coaching school, the Lindsay Hassett School of Cricket, and was expected, along with Doug Ring, Ernie McCormick, John Edwards, to provide expert coaching, under the supervision of the former Fitzroy off-spinner Joe Plant.

[72] St Kilda lost the match, with Hill scoring 7 runs in his only innings, and failing to take a wicket.

[73][74] In a 1950 interview, the Prahran Cricket Club Captain, Ivan Porter, said that of all the bowlers that he had ever faced in his long career, that he was the most impressed with Jack Hill: "He is one of the most difficult to score runs off".

[78] At the time of his death (at 51) he was a high-level civil servant in the Age and Invalid Pension division of the Victorian Office of the Commonwealth Department of Social Security.