(For the question of Whitworth's birthdate and place, see Notes.)
Robert Whitworth had been a barrister's clerk in England, but made his name and his living in the colonies with a diverse literary career: as a journalist, novelist, playwright, and according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, a 'prolific miscellaneous writer'. After emigrating to New South Wales with his newly married wife in 1855, Whitworth worked as an actor in Sydney and as a horsebreaker in the Hunter River district; he was at one stage also a riding master in a circus spectacular, until a serious accident ended this career path. Whitworth did not abandon his stage career entirely, however, and continued to act in productions of his own plays.
Whitworth travelled widely through the colonies. In Sydney, he wrote for the Empire and several short-lived magazines and spent some time in Queensland before moving to Melbourne in 1864. Here Whitworth developed his reputation as a journalist, working on newspapers including The Age, The Argus, and the Daily Telegraph. He was proprietor and editor of the magazine Town Talk in the late 1870s, and had also been editor of The Australian Journal for an uncertain period from 1874 - occupying the position formerly held by his close friend, Marcus Clarke. Whitworth also spent several years in New Zealand, principally in Dunedin, where he wrote for the Otago Daily Times and, using the pen-name 'The Literary Bohemian', for the The Otago Witness.
Aside from his output of journalism, stories, novels and plays, Whitworth was active in the production of gazetteers, guides, and histories. Whitworth's 'wide knowledge of life in the city, bush, goldfields and theatre is reflected in his work.' Colin Roderick also considers his 'bushranging episodes' the starting point for 'Rolf Boldrewood,' and discerns 'an influence in style and matter upon the better-known writer.'
(Sources: Adapted from Australian Dictionary of Biography (1966-.):VI, 394-95)
And from biography by Colin Roderick in Australian Round-up: Stories from 1790 to 1950)
