He later joined the King's Own 4th Regiment as a Private and was stationed at Government House in Sydney as a servant to Captain Robert Westmacott who, in turn, was aide-de-camp to Governor Richard Bourke.
After four years in the colony he was married at Parramatta by Chaplain Samuel Marsden to Amelia Carlisle. George was 28 years old and Amelia was 22; both signed the marriage register with a mark. Amelia was the daughter of William Carlisle, a free settler who had emigrated to Australia in 1804. Amelia's mother, Mary Ann Gordon, died two weeks after Amelia's birth. Amelia was raised by her father and her step-mother, Elizabeth Blackman. At the age of four, Amelia spent two years in New Zealand when her father was employed by Rev Samuel Marsden in the Church Missionary Society's settlement at the Bay of Islands.
George and Amelia's first child was born in the year after their marriage and named for the mother that Amelia never knew, Mary Ann. In the following year, 1837, George purchased his discharge for £15 rather than accompany the regiment to Madras, India. He took up employment with Captain Westmacott at Bulli in the Illawarra district. According to family oral history, George had charge of the convicts that built the road down Bulli Pass. In any case, he settled his family on Captain Westmacott's Bulli property "Woodlands".
The couple's second child, James, was born in 1840, followed by John (1842), Charles (1844), Emma (1846), Elizabeth (1848), William and Richard (1850) and Robert (1853). By the time Susannah was born on 4 May 1855, the family had moved further south to Berkeley. She was followed by two more sons: Joseph (1858) and David (1861).
Subsequently, George and Amelia moved to their own farm at Mt Kembla.
Amelia died on 2 June 1876 and is buried in the grounds of St Luke's Church of England, Brownsville near Dapto.
Two years later, George's youngest daughter, Susannah, aged 23, wanted to marry James Jolliffe. Oral history in the Jolliffe family is that George refused to grant permission because he wanted Susannah to look after him in his old age. In any case, she was married to James Jolliffe on 30 December 1878 at Wollongong, with her brother David Waples and Susan Plucknett as witnesses. James and Susan moved to the central west of NSW where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
George Waples died 5 years later on 27 February 1884. He is buried with his wife. His 50 acre farm and the remainder of his estate was bequeathed to his youngest sons Joseph and David. A large number of descendants from George and Amelia live in the Illawarra district today.