He seems to have been specially marked out by Nature for prominence as an explorer, for, from his earliest boyhood he was fond of rambling through the bush, and his father encouraged him in his desire for a free country life and his love of adventure.

School facilities were lacking, but fortunately his mother attended to his education and saw to it that he did not grow up destitute of that instruction common to youth of those times and of his standing.
At the age of seventeen he made his initial effort at exploration in the country around Berrima, in company with his brother Kennedy and a black boy.

They were successful in their endeavours, and found some good pastoral country.

In the following year, encouraged by their success, the brothers made another excursion.

In 1816, a Mr.Throsby bought some of the land that young Kennedy and Hamilton had found; and their father sent them out with him to show him the country he had purchased.