[4] After his capture at Kanowna, and his conviction and sentencing in England, he returned with his wife, Clara Ellen Neale-Whitlock, and daughter to Western Australia to continue his work in ornithology.

[6] The significant contribution of F. Lawson Whitlock's works to the state's ornithology was noted in The West Australian, published on his ninetieth birthday, the item also links his ancestry to English parliamentarian Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke.

[8] Whitlock had published a book before leaving England, The Birds of Derbyshire, with map and six illustrations (1893), supplemented with notes of a taxidermist and author, A.S. Hutchinson (active 1870s, died 1909).

The journal's editor, H. M. Whittell, praised his contributions in The Emu on his eightieth birthday, and in a page given over to Whitlock's achievements in his ornithological history of the state, prefacing Serventy's Birds of Western Australia:[3][6] Not only were Mr Whitlock’s discoveries very numerous, but he has the gift of being able so to describe his field-work that the many records he left in the pages of The Emu are not only literary efforts of a high standard, but are also work-pictures of the habits of the species with which he has come into contact.

[7][9] Taxa bearing his name include An archive containing Whitlock's notes and diaries is held at JS Battye Library of West Australian History.

[14] Whitlock joined or led a number of expeditions within the state of Western Australia, significantly contributing to the region's ornithology during a period of increased exploration and scientific research.

Whitlock failed to collect a specimen of the elusive Night parrot, Pezoporus occidentalis, while searching at Henbury Station, but recorded sightings and observations of other birds in that region.