In 1861 he commenced practice in the Victorian goldfields town of Creswick. His brother William, an engineer, had moved to Melbourne in 1857, and three of his brothers went to India around this time, leaving two to run the family firm in Glasgow.
In 1870, he returned to Glasgow where he married Isabella Hart, whose sister was married to his eldest brother John. His mother died 18 days later on 19 Feb 1871.
They returned to Australia on Agamemnon and their first son, William, was born in 1872. In 1874 and opportunity arose for Thomas to move to Horsham in western Victoria where he worked in the hospital. The family continued to grow, but in 1880 they lost their only daughter Mary, aged 5 years. Not long after this, they moved to Toorak in Melbourne where he commenced practice in Williams road. The family attended the Toorak Presbyterian Church where he became Treasurer.
At Christmas 1889 his brother William died suddenly from diptheria along with 3 of his 4 children. The great crash of the 90s was commencing and the Steel family was caught up in this as some of the leaders of the land boom were part of his church group.
Worse was to come as Thomas died of a ruptured appendix in 1893, just as this was becoming operable. They now had 8 surviving children, the youngest only 3 years old.
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