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service at Bendigo and later he joined the church. Four years later he commenced preaching in Melbourne First
Circuit. In 1869 he was appointed as bush missionary at Mt Gambier and from there in 1870 he was nominated as
a candidate for the ministry. In January 1871 he was accepted as a probationer and appointed as junior minister at
Pine Street, Adelaide, where his work among the poor and destitute was widely recognised. In November 1873 he
was ordained and appointed to Naracoorte. Meantime he had married Miss Hilda Stephenson on 18 November 1872
in the Wesleyan Parsonage, Pine Street Adelaide. The bride was born at Coventry England on 14 September 1835,
the daughter of Thomas Stephenson.
His period at Naracoorte was restricted to only five months because he was approached by a special committee
set up to consider the establishment of a mission in the newly formed town of Palmerston in the Northern Territory.
‘A meeting held in the Pine Street Lecture Hall on 3 July 1873 [decided] to send a Minister immediately. Forthwith
in the name of the Lord Jesus went Mr and Mrs Bogle accompanied by the prayers of the Methodist people.’
The Bogles arrived in Palmerston, Port Darwin, on board the SS Taruria on 17 August 1873. The establishment of
the mission and the appointment of Bogle had the encouragement and support of the Methodist Missionary Society
in London, which contributed 300 toward establishment costs.
Bogle brought with him material to build a residence but on arrival there was no accommodation available and
the young couple spent their first night ashore under a tarpaulin, tormented by mosquitoes and sandflies. He later
reported that nearly all the residents were ‘down with fever’. He secured the use of an ‘old government hut’ as a
temporary dwelling and on Sunday 14 conducted his first service under a tree on the Esplanade.
On 26 August Bogle set out on a three-week tour of the ‘reefs’ travelling by steam launch to Southport and then
on horseback as far as Pine Creek, where on arrival he was informed that one John White had died the previous
day. Bogle conducted the funeral that afternoon, 6 September, his first in the Territory. This trip gave him an idea
of the country and its people. He was not impressed by Southport, which he saw as ‘surrounded by mangrove scrub
shutting out all the breezes’. Other places, however, he saw in a better light but the profane language of many of
the men he met disgusted him. This was to be the first of many trips visiting the miners.
Following this first visit to the reefs Bogle decided to make Palmerston the headquarters of the mission and
erected his dwelling on land owned by an Adelaide churchman, William Longbottom, on the corner of Knuckey
and Mitchell streets. He did most of the building work himself and was very proud, even if it was, as he agreed,
‘a bit off the square’. In the early weeks of his ministry Bogle conducted worship in a room at the Residency but
during this period he made an important discovery. Earlier the Congregational Church, in response to a submission
from some residents of Pine Creek, had been moved to provide a ministry in the Northern Territory. In 1871 the
first steps had been taken and Alexander Gore, then the finance secretary of the church, had offered his services
with the idea that he could support himself by trading while doing evangelistic work. He had conducted worship
at the Residency, but early in his stay contracted malaria, necessitating his return south before the arrival of
material for the building of a church. Bogle discovered his material unclaimed on the beach. On his suggestion
the Methodist Church bought the material from the Congregationalists for 175 Pounds and Bogle arranged with
a Mr Pitman to erect the church for forty. With the additional expenditure of 13 Pounds 7 Shillings 9 Pence for
furnishings the chapel was ready for use. It was opened and dedicated on Sunday 2 November 1873 and on the
following Wednesday a tea meeting in a marquee outside the new building saw 200 sit down to ‘a very sumptuous
repast’. In the evening the Honourable Thomas Reynolds chaired a public meeting at which he expressed the
hope that ‘the Wesleyans would be as successful in Palmerston as they were in the south’. This building was the
only place of worship in the town for some years. It was finally destroyed in the cyclone of 1897 and replaced on
the same site by an all-iron structure that served the community until well into the post-Second World War period
when the new Uniting Church in Smith Street replaced it.
Bogle had difficulty finding suitable persons to fill the offices required in a Methodist Circuit. J Bowles of
Pine Creek was his first circuit steward and in the absence of another qualified Methodist, A McKay, a Presbyterian,
who resided in Palmerston, was appointed junior circuit steward.
Very soon Bogle became interested and involved in a variety of matters of a social nature. A prime concern
was that of health. In November 1873 the Northern Territory Times complained about the dirt and filth of the town
and of the urgent need of a hospital. A public meeting sought the clean up of the town and the establishment of a
hospital. The meeting elected a committee of four including Bogle to pursue this aim. By means of entertainment
and subscriptions, about 100 Pounds was in hand by early December and the South Australian government had
offered 500 Pounds if a similar amount could be raised locally. The committee met in December with Bogle in
the chair. At this meeting the resignation of the secretary was received and Alexander McKay elected in his place.
This committee succeeded in having a building erected and it commenced operations in June 1874.
Bogle maintained a close interest in the hospital and later, when there was controversy over its control, involving
the District Council, the Resident and the Colonial Surgeon, Bogle’s leadership helped resolve the matter.
Around the same time as the move for a hospital there were also moves to secure some form of local government.
In January 1874 a public meeting held at the Esplanade Hotel discussed ‘the advisability of memorialising the
Government for the establishment of a corporation or a District Council. Bogle gave active support to this move
and the District Council was set up in June 1874 with boundaries to take in the cemetery, a small portion of
Fannie Bay and Stokes Hill with a total of 1019 allotments.
Bogle was interested in securing additional population for the Territory and when Chinese coolies were
introduced as labourers in 1874 he was willing to observe the success or failure of the scheme. However, when at
about the same time Bishop Francois-Louis Bugnion arrived to promote the settlement of up to 40 000 Mennonite
Christian migrants in northern Australia, Bogle gave support and encouragement. The South Australian government
was willing to enter into an arrangement and Bugnion was told of the area which would be available but, with a