 On his return to Australia in 1929 he worked as a general practitioner, but returned to London in 1933 to study psychiatry at the Tavistock Clinic.In 1937 he opened a practice in Sydney as a consultant psychiatrist and was appointed to the honorary staff of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital psychiatric clinic, remaining there until retiring in 1959.Although trained in psychoanalysis, Swanton followed the theory of biological psychiatry, which maintained that mental problems were best treated by physical methods.