His family remained in London during this period, giving young Appleton the opportunity to follow his interest in theatre, seeing all the shows and taking elocution and acting lessons from William Hoskins.
Then the time came to leave for what was by then the Colony of Victoria, following Hoskins' advice, he packed a great chest with costumes suitable for a variety of Shakespearean roles, including a Prince Hamlet outfit exactly like that made for Wybert Rousby.
On arrival in Melbourne, Appleton was installed by his father in the Bourke Street warehouse, but showed neither the aptitude for, nor interest in, business and soon decamped for the goldfields of Sandhurst (present-day Bendigo).
There he joined a theatre company managed by George Fawcett Rowe and one Ramsay, and won for himself the part of Lord Lovell in Philip Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts.
He appeared in Hazlewood's adaptation of Lady Audley's Secret, played Cassio in Othello, Barnard Reynolds in Miriam's Crime by H. T. Craven, Sefarino Del'Aguila in Rigoletto (based on Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo), Horatio in Hamlet, starring Dillon as the Prince; Taylor's The Contested Election as the opposition attorney; Claude Melnotte in Bulwer's Richelieu; the Earl of Richmond in Richard III; Icilius in Knowles's Virginius; Edgar in King Lear; the Prince de Gonsagues in John Brougham's The Duke's Motto,[8] an adaptation by J. H. McCarthy of Paul Feval's French original.
He played Gaston Rieux in Camille, based on Hugo's La Dame aux Camélias, with Robert Heir as Armand Duval and his wife in the title role.
[9] In 1868 he played Captain Hawtree in T. W. Robertson's Caste, and leading parts in Augustin Daly's Under the Gaslight, H. J. Byron's comedy £100,000[10] and Douglas Jerrold's burlesque Black Eyed Susan.
In 1886 his Wilfred Denver in The Silver King[21] and Harold Armytage in Lights o' London[22] were praised, as was his little daughter Ethel, who appeared in both melodramas for MacMahon and Leitch.
He was with Alfred Dampier's company in New South Wales 1897–1898 and 1900–1901 playing Cassio to Fairclough's Othello at the Theatre Royal and the Earl of Leicester to Madame Janauschek's Mary Stuart in Schiller's drama.
[6] Appleton was a prominent member of the Australasian Dramatic and Musical Association He died at his home at 310 Fitzroy-street, Fitzroy, and his remains were buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.