From 1928 to 1933, he worked as a freelance writer in South and Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea and published dozens of short stories in The Australian Journal, The Bulletin and magazines in the United Kingdom.

[2] White was a journalist with The Herald and Weekly Times during the Japanese invasion of Papua New Guinea in 1942, before becoming an accredited war correspondent with the Australian forces there.

[3] He was seriously wounded during the New Georgia campaign and, while recovering in Australia, he wrote Green Armour, which described in detail the harsh conditions of the jungle fighting in 1942 including on the Kokoda Track.

In the early 1950s, he wrote a hard-hitting series that ran for over one year and called for radical reform of mental health and child welfare provisions in the State of Victoria.

Although no reason was given at the time, White believed the work, which contained criticism of Allied forces behaviour at both the military and political levels, was too controversial.