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BOTTOMLEY, HORATIO WILLIAM (1860–1933), Company promoter and financial manipulator, was born
on 23 March 1860 in London, the second child of William King Bottomley, a tailor’s cutter, and his wife Elizabeth.
The parents died when Horatio was five and he received his education in an orphanage. He then worked in a variety
of jobs, learned shorthand whilst with the City Solicitor’s Office and became an official court shorthand writer. He
married Elize Norton in 1880, started a political paper and embarked on a long career as company promoter. He
became bankrupt in 1892 but defended himself so well that the judge, when acquitting him, advised him to take
up the Bar.
Over the next 10 years or so Bottomley floated and reconstructed companies, invariably with considerable
benefit to himself but little if any to the shareholders. It is believed that over 25 million Pounds of the public’s
money passed through his hands in this way. In 1894, following gold fields in Kalgoorlie, he turned his attention
to the Northern Territory. Hugh Watt was sent out to the Territory to buy up any promising-looking properties.
Shortly afterward, Northern Territory Goldfields of Australia Ltd was floated. Capital was 300 000 Pounds in two
Pound shares, most of which were sold to the public at 6 Pounds but of all this, only 75 000 Pounds was available as
working capital. The new company owned mines at the Howley, Brock’s Creek (Zapopan), Woolwonga, Eveleen,
Pine Creek and Union Reefs. Not long after, Zapopan and Howley mines were floated off as separate companies.
Six hundred tonnes of machinery arrived from England, steel-lined shafts were sunk, palatial staff residences
built, and then the money ran out. Practically all the expenditure had been on the surface and little or nothing on
assessing the extent and development of the ore bodies to generate a cash flow. This did not bother Bottomley
who, over the next few years, reconstructed his Northern Territory companies several times. In doing this he issued
glowing statement of the extent and richness of the ore-bodies, for example, ‘the richest goldfield yet discovered
in the world’, ‘assays of 13 to 85 ounces to the ton’. These statements had no foundation in fact, but were believed
by the gullible public. Some additional working capital did find its way to the Territory, mining resumed and the
problems involved in treatment of the ores and keeping the mines free of water became severe.
A London director was sent to the Territory to reorganise matters. The floating of the Northern Territory Mining
and Smelting Company in 1902 followed this. Furnaces and smelters were erected at Yam Creek and a considerable
amount of copper bullion produced. A light railway was built from Yam Creek to Mt Ellison, a distance of about
twenty kilometres but Mt Ellison ran out of ore.
Back in England, Bottomley was now a Member of Parliament, owned several racehorses and entertained
lavishly. Then in 1908 he was charged with conspiracy to defraud. The charges were dismissed but from then on
his credibility was gone. In 1908 all operations in the Territory ceased and the machinery was advertised for sale.
Whether Bottomley ever intended to carry out genuine mining in the Territory is doubtful. If he did, the way his
companies went about it increased the chances of failure in a high-risk industry. Insufficient capital was available,
given the number and locations of the mines. An excessive part of the capital was spent on costly residences and
other appurtenances for managerial staff and the remainder on machinery, pumps and expensive steel-lined shafts
before any real attempt was made to prove the size and characteristics of the ore-bodies. Not until after the shafts
had been sunk and equipped and the milling machinery set up ready for production was it realised that the pumps
could not control heavy inflows of underground water and that much of the ore was refractory, leading to low gold
recovery on the battery plates and in some cases no recovery at all by the cyanide process. The copper ore-bodies
were too small to justify smelters. Possibly at least some of the mines would have paid with adequate capital and
sound management, but when the main problems were realised it was too late. Confidence in Bottomley and his
companies had been lost and there was no possibility of raising additional funds.
As mining ventures Bottomley’s companies failed totally, but they did attract mining men to the Territory, some
of whom remained, and they resulted in some general improvement in conditions. Unfortunately, as far as the
investing public was concerned, his operations left a stigma on the Territory that remained for many years.
After 1908, Bottomley returned to horseracing and public fundraising activities of dubious propriety. He was
declared bankrupt in 1912 with debts of about 250 000 Pounds. Some years later he arranged for his Northern
Territory Syndicate and two other companies under his control to buy the debts at a heavy discount. He was
declared free of bankruptcy in 1918. In 1922, however, he again faced charges and was found guilty of offences
that the presiding judge characterised as ‘a series of heartless frauds on poor people’. The sentence was seven years
in prison. As stated by Felstead, Horatio Bottomley died in 1933, ‘penniless and practically friendless’.
J Symons, Horatio Bottomley, 1955; S T Felstead, Horatio Bottomley, 1936; Australian Mining Standard, April 1900; Northern Territory Times
and Gazette, 1894–1908; NT Government Resident’s Reports, 1894–1908.
T G JONES, Vol 1.BOWDITCH, JAMES (JIM) (1919– ), stockman, miner, labourer, soldier, salesman, journalist and author, was
born in London in 1919. He was one of five children and of a working class family. He left school at 14 years
of age to help support his family during the Depression. When he was 17 he worked his passage to Australia on
Port Dunedin in order to fulfil a childhood dream of becoming a farmer.
Bowditch worked at a number of jobs after his arrival in Australia. He first was at the Glen Innes Government
Experimental Farm in New South Wales, where he learnt the rudiments of farming but received no payment.
He also worked for a time as a stockman on Gammaran sheep station near Cunnamulla in Queensland before
he was lured to Wellington, New South Wales, to search for gold. Mining proved unsuccessful, however, and
Bowditch was forced to apply for a travelling dole scheme under which the Australian government supplied rations
to many unemployed. The scheme required recipients to move from town to town in order to receive their benefits.