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Don Whitington

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Bertram Lindon "Don" Whitington (31 January 1911 – 5 May 1977) was an Australian political journalist and author.

Life

A member of the Whitington family of South Australia, whose family arrived in Australia in 1840, Don Whitington was born in Ballarat and grew up in Tasmania. He worked as a jackaroo in New South Wales before he moved to Sydney in 1933 and began working as a journalist. In 1941 he was appointed to head the Canberra office of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and thereafter he remained based in Canberra.[1] In 1947 he founded the newsletter Inside Canberra (http://insidecanberra.com), which has been published ever since, currently by Keating Media Pty Ltd.[2] He and his business partner Eric White began a media company, and in the 1950s they founded two newspapers, the Northern Territory News and the Mount Isa Mail, both of which they later sold to Rupert Murdoch.[1]

He wrote several books on federal politics and two novels. In 1968 he wrote a series of articles for The Age on the political, racial and economic problems faced by the then Australian territory of Papua New Guinea.[3] His unfinished autobiography was published the year after he died of a heart attack.

His first marriage, of 1936, produced three children but ended in divorce. He married again in 1974.[1]

Books

  • The House Will Divide: A Review of Australian Federal Politics (1954, 1969)
  • Ring the Bells: A Dictionary of Australian Federal Politics (1956)
  • Treasure Upon the Earth (1957) (novel)
  • Mile Pegs (1963) republished in 1978 under the title King Hit (novel)
  • The Rulers: Fifteen Years of the Liberals (1964)
  • In Search of an Australian (1967)
  • The Effluent Society: Pollution in Australia (1970)
  • Inside Canberra: A Guide to Australian Federal Politics (1971) (written with Rob Chalmers)
  • The Menzies Era and After, 1949–1970 (1972)
  • Twelfth Man? (1972)
  • The Witless Men (1975)
  • Strive to Be Fair: An Unfinished Autobiography (1978)

References

  1. ^ a b c Farquharson, John. "Whitington, Bertram Lindon (Don) (1911–1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. ADB. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  2. ^ ""Inside Canberra" history". www.busicom.com.au. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  3. ^ The Age, 18 June 1968, p. 4; 19 June 1968, p. 4; 20 June 1968, p. 4.
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