 He had further experience as editor of the "Penny Post", Goulburn, and the "Times", Parramatta, before joining the "Australian Town and Country Journal" at Sydney about the year 1871.With this job he came under the influence of the "Journal"'s proprietor Samuel Bennett, who Heaton knew as "the best friend I ever had"; on 16 July 1873 he married Bennett's daughter, Rose.In 1879 he published "The Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time".