After completing his university degree in 1902, Basedow held some short-term government appointments including as one of four prospectors on the 1903 South Australian Government North-West Prospecting Expedition. In 1905, he joined South Australian Government Geologist Henry Yorke Lyell Brown and mining inspector Lionel Gee on a geological expedition to the Northern Territory. On his return to Adelaide, Basedow was appointed curator of the geological and mineral collections of the South Australian School of Mines where he classified the 2500 specimens in the School's geological collection. His catalogue was published in 1907.