He went to Western Australia at the age of thirteen and worked in the Kalgoorlie gold mines.

At that time, he had been working on addressing the needs of the unemployed camped along the Torrens River, resulting in several hundred of them being accommodated in the Jubilee Exhibition Building.

Although there was dispute over whether he personally had been expelled as he had been absent during the Premiers' Plan vote, he sat with the renegade Parliamentary Labor Party, consisting of the expelled Cabinet, and served as Acting Government Whip in the aftermath.

[16][17] In April 1932, he proposed a unity conference in conjunction with the federal Labor Party, but was rebuffed by the PLP caucus.

[18] In August, along with Thomas Butterfield, he publicly condemned the PLP's coalition with their previous opponents the Liberal Federation.