Hume married Anna Kate “Katie” Fowler in Brisbane, Australia in 1866, after she arrived in Australia. Her father had been an architect and commissioner of the 1851 Great Exhibition. They lived in Drayton near Toowoomba. Hume was retrenched in 1867 but took up private surveying work the following year. They had eight children, five dying in early infancy. The family prospered as Hume was appointed Mineral Lands Commissioner in Stanthorpe in 1872. He undertook a geological survey of the area and the family split their time between Stanthorpe and Drayton. Hume was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, Darling Downs District in 1875. He signed off on the establishment of the town of Texas on the Queensland and New South Wales state border. In 1876 the Humes moved to a new home “The Hermitage” outside of Toowoomba.