He attended Dobies Bight State School and St Mary's Convent in Casino.
Eaton worked as a labourer, fencer, timber cutter, stationhand and machinery operator, and from 1963 he was the leading hand of a live-line gang with the Far North Queensland Electricity Board.
[1] In 1980, Eaton was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly as the Labor member for Mourilyan.
In 1983 he was promoted to the front bench as Opposition Spokesman for Water Resources and Maritime Services, and upon Labor's victory in 1989 he became Minister for Land Management.
The merged seat was notionally Labor-held, but Eaton lost a close contest to National's Marc Rowell.