Together with his superior, the Comptroller General Edmund Henderson, he created a reforming, humane convict regime for Western Australia.
After only six months in Glasgow, Dixon was forced to return home to take the place of his brother, who had fallen seriously ill and would die shortly afterwards.
Together with the Comptroller General Edmund Henderson, he created a reforming, humane convict system for Western Australia.
Dixon earned high praise from his superiors for his innovations, but their opinion of him was to change rapidly in April 1859 when he was stood down on admission of the embezzlement of public money.
Dixon had been in financial difficulty for some time, and so "it inevitably appeared that he had misappropriated public funds to offset his private expenditure".
Within three days of his release, Dixon fled the colony on board the schooner Guyon, which was bound for Singapore.
Nothing is known of how he spent the next ten years of his life, but in December 1876 he arrived back at Fremantle on board the Fitzroy.
He spent the final years of his life in poor health, living with his eldest daughter Mary and her husband.