John Robert Boyett worked as an apprentice in a London printing house before emigrating with his family at the age of 19 to Kyneton, Victoria. After working at the Government Printing Office in Melbourne, he turned his sights to gold mining, working first on the west coast of New Zealand, then returning to Australia in response to the Palmer Gold Rush.
Boyett's interest then turned to newspapers. He worked as a journalist and printer in Cooktown and, reputedly, as editor of The Cooktown Courier for a short period in 1876. He also edited The Hodgkinson Mining News and The Hodgkinson Miner, remaining with this paper when it was moved to Herberton and renamed The Wild River Times and editing it from 1883 until his death in 1904.
Source: James Manion Paper Power in North Queensland Townsville: The North Queensland Newspaper Company, 1982.
Rod Kirkpatrick. Sworn to No Master : A History of the Provincial Press in Queensland to 1930. Toowoomba: Darling Downs Institute Press, 1984.
