He learned reporting on the Ipswich Herald (afterwards the Queensland Times) under and then moved to Brisbane in 1865, to undertake parliamentary reporting.
Watterston spent several years in the gallery for The Brisbane Courier and next on the Guardian, from which paper, in June 1869, he obtained promotion to the parliamentary staff of The Argus, Melbourne, returning to Victoria after nine years' absence.Watterston executed various special commissions for The Argus, being sent to the United States in 1876, for six months, in connection with the Philadelphia Exhibition.
He went to England in 1879, to report on the movements of the Berry-Pearson embassy.
Watterston was appointed chief of The Argus reporting staff in 1881, and four years later, on the editorship of the Australasian becoming vacant, he had that position given to him, the Australasian being a weekly literary, sporting and agricultural journal, started by the proprietors of The Argus in 1864.
Watterston was editor of the Argus from 1903 to 1906.Watterston died in Armadale, Victoria, Australia on 23 July 1931; he was unmarried.