In 1830 Captain Browne, at one time a ship master of the East India Company, and his wife emigrated to New South Wales with their first son Thomas aboard the barque Proteus, of which he was owner and commander, first delivering his cargo of convicts to Tasmania.
The Morphettville Racecourse had been resumed by the mortgagee in 1883 after its operator, the South Australian Jockey Club failed financially following the prohibition of the totalizator.
In 1888 he purchased four yearlings: Carrington (which he brought from South Australia), Tinlander, Loch and Hartlands,[10] which he raced with only moderate success, and appears to have quit the game in 1891.
)[11] director of the Broken Hill Junction Silver Mining Company (Limited) in 1886, and its largest shareholder, with 20,000 £1 shares.
[12] Browne was an excellent pigeon shooter and cricketer in his younger days; in later years he was a keen golfer, and he was a prime mover behind the Royal Melbourne Golf Club's acquisition of its course at Sandringham.