At 17 he began exploring the Sydney area, and went as far as Berrima. On these journeys Hume learned how to live safely in the bush (the area far from the cities). In March 1817 he went on a journey with James Meehan, the deputy surveyor-general, and came to Lake Bathurst and the Goulburn Plains. Later he went with John Oxley and Meehan to Jervis Bay, and in 1822 was with a group which sailed in a boat down the east coast of New South Wales looking for rivers.