- Born
- 1831
Torquay, Devon, England - Died
- 31 March 1901
Prahran, Victoria, Australia
Summary
Whitworth was born in Torquay, England, where he worked as a barrister's clerk, before marrying and immigrating to Australia in 1855. He worked as an actor and a horse-breaker at first, and then turned to journalism, contributing to many Melbourne newspapers and magazines, including the Age, the Argus, the Daily Telegraph and Melbourne Punch. He was a proprietor and editor of Table Talk, an editor of The Australian Journal, and a close friend of Marcus Clarke - collaborating with him on the dramatisation of The Happy Land (1880), a play that satirised the Berry Government and was subsequently banned. In addition to his extensive journalism, Whitworth wrote popular guidebooks and histories, various novels and novellas set in Australia and New Zealand, as well as four collections of short stories concerned with different aspects of Australian life, including Australian Stories Round the Camp Fire (1872), and Echoes from Bushland (1881). He died of apoplexy at Prahran.