Atwell Edwin Hayes arrived in New South Wales in 1824. He succeeded Robert Wardell as editor of the Australian in 1828, and in 1829 was convicted of seditious libel for writing in that paper that Governor Darling had substituted his own will for law in the Sudds and Thompson case. He was fined 100 pounds and served six months to January 1830 in Parramatta Gaol. He continued to edit the Australian in gaol, and following his release, until February 1833.
Hayes was editor of the Sydney Gazette from 2 January 1836 to 30 August 1836.
