[1] He started practising as an architect in 1855 and in that year responded to a notice in the Gazette of 25 January advertising a contest to design a water reticulation scheme for Adelaide, then petitioned for an enquiry when no prize was awarded.
[3] As early as 1853 the Government had voted money to provide such a line but had made no progress; however when Macgeorge sought planning permission it was refused on the grounds of unnecessary duplication.
[4] Macgeorge surmounted these obstacles by avoiding the (government-controlled) railway and main roads, and on 1 December 1855 the line went into service, and performed perfectly.
Less than two months later, Charles Todd had, with the greatest expedition, completed the Government line,[5] a more direct, technically superior, and vastly more expensive affair.
Following the death of his father in a shipwreck in 1860, James designed and built a house "St Andrews" for himself and his mother, in North Adelaide.