AustLit

John Drayton was a journalist who worked for many Australian newspapers. Little is known about his early life but his journalistic talents appear to have been discovered by Sydney's Bulletin. His fame was established on the Western Australian goldfields as editor of some of the liveliest newspapers of the W.A. goldrush era. Goldfields newspapers he edited at one time or another included the Coolgardie Review, Coolgardie Miner, and the Sun (Kalgoorlie). In 1904 he spent four weeks in Fremantle Prison for non-payment of a fine under the Parliamentary Privileges Act after refusing to give evidence before a Legislative Assembly Committee about alleged irregularities in the issuing of a Coolgardie gold mining lease. In the latter years of his career he wrote for the Sydney publication, Smith's Weekly.