In 1890, John Harmer Bond was still employed in the Customs Office in Normanton, and in that year he managed to arrange a transfer to Brisbane as a Distillery and Excise Inspector. Doubtless because of this happy change in circumstances, it was decided that the family should be reunited. So Isabella, with the four year old Elizabeth, travelled again to England to collect the family.

With his return to Australia, school-days ended for sixteen year old George. His great wish was to become a Doctor of Medicine, but in those days, all the cost of such education had to be borne by the parents. With all the younger children to be provided for (another daughter, Rosa, was born in 1891), this expense could not be undertaken. The family settled temporarily at Mowbray Park, a Brisbane suburb, and George began work as a cashier in a local butcher's shop, a job that was not at all to his liking. In April 1892, he was accepted in the Queensland Public Service, and began work under Clement Wragge at the Weather Office.

Bureau of Meteorology