 At the suggestion of his elder brother John, who had arrived in Sydney in 1828, he decided to travel to Australia, arriving at Sydney in November 1834.In 1836, Hawdon, together with John Gardiner and John Hepburn, made an overland journey to Melbourne with cattle, the first to come from New South Wales.Hawdon returned briefly to Sydney, but moved to Melbourne in 1837, and in August of that year he took up land near the present site of Dandenong.