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

Life

A member of the

Whitington family William Smallpeice Whitington was an early English settler in South Australia, founder of the shipping company Whitington & Co. He emigrated on his own ship ''New Holland'' (Captain P. Bussell), arriving in South Australia in July 1840. That cargo, ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, whose family arrived in Australia in 1840, Don Whitington was born in Ballarat and grew up in

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. He worked as a jackaroo in

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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. In 1947 he founded the newsletter ''Inside Canberra (http://insidecanberra.com)'', which has been published ever since, currently by Keating Media Pty Ltd. He and his business partner Eric White began a media company, and in the 1950s they founded two newspapers, the ''

Northern Territory News The ''Northern Territory News'' (also known and branded as the ''NT News'') is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published every week from Monday to Saturday. It prima ...

'' and the ''Mount Isa Mail'', both of which they later sold to

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

. Whitington wrote several books on federal politics and two novels. In 1968 he wrote a series of articles for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'' on the political, racial and economic problems faced by the then Australian territory of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

.''

'', 18 June 1968, p. 4; 19 June 1968, p. 4; 20 June 1968, p. 4. 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.

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

External links

John Farquharson, "Whitington, Bertram Lindon (Don) (1911–1977)"
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Don Whitington resources
at the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitington, Don 1911 births 1977 deaths Australian political journalists 20th-century Australian novelists People from Ballarat