 He attended Marist Brothers' High School in Darlinghurst and then the University of Sydney, receiving a Bachelor of Engineering in 1929.After graduating, he became an assistant construction engineer, working on the Woronora Dam for the Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board; he later began his own Queensland business manufacturing roofing tiles.In 1933 he was in charge of mill installation at Port Kembla for Australian Iron and Steel Ltd and then worked in Papua and Tasmania.