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Eventually Bowditch escaped from unemployment and found work ring barking, a job he held until he joined the
Australian Army at the outbreak of the Second World War.
He served with the Second Ninth Infantry Battalion in North Africa and New Guinea before he volunteered
for the special sabotage and spy unit, ‘Z’ Special Force. His exploits with ‘Z’ Force won him the Distinguished
Conduct Medal (DCM) and a number of citations for bravery.
After the war Bowditch worked for a time as a door-to-door salesman and as the lighthouse keeper on Moreton
Island in Queensland. In 1948 he moved to Alice Springs with the intention of taking up land under the federal
government’s soldiers’ resettlement scheme. When the scheme proved unsuccessful he gained work as Paymaster
for the Department of Works and Housing in Alice Springs. Whilst a public servant he began writing articles for
both the Centralian Advocate and the southern press.
His writing so impressed the Advocate’s Manager that in 1950 he was asked to edit the paper despite his
inexperience and inability to type. When he eventually learnt to type it was by means of a unique three-fingered
method which over the years became a trademark.
Whilst Editor of the Advocate Bowditch fought for recognition of part Aboriginal people as full citizens, a fight
he believed later was counter productive in that it alienated the different sectors of Aboriginal society. He also
fought matters of police corruption despite threats of personal injury being a possible consequence of his actions.
In 1954 Bowditch and his part Aboriginal wife Betty, whom he met in Alice Springs, moved to Darwin with
their young son. In Darwin, Bowditch became Editor of the fledgling Northern Territory News. During his period
as Editor of the News he championed social justice causes and disclosed instances of corruption. His most famous
revelation of corruption involved illegal betting shops that operated openly in Darwin in the 1950s.
Bowditch investigated the betting shop system after police raided and closed a new shop set up in opposition
to the existing operator on the day that the shop opened. He questioned the officer in charge of the raid,
Sergeant Jim Mannion, who eventually disclosed corruption that reached into the highest levels of the Territory
administration. Mannion’s career was damaged by his revelation, an issue of injustice, which Bowditch pursued
along with his questioning of the integrity of the Administrator, Frank Wise, who was also Commissioner of
Police. Though the administration accused Bowditch of sensationalism, he launched a campaign to have gambling
legalised to prevent further corruption and in the belief that revenue from gambling taxes would assist the Territory’s
economic development. Mainly due to Bowditch’s campaign, gambling was legalised in the Northern Territory.
The need for constitutional reform in the Territory was an issue that Bowditch often addressed in the Northern
Territory News editorials. Like many Territorians, he saw the spectacle of the Legislative Council’s seven appointed
members defeating the proposals of the six elected members as ludicrous. He believed that Territory citizens
should be responsible for their own destiny.
Bowditch was a passionate advocate for social justice. In 1959 he became personally involved in white stockman
Mick Daly’s fight to gain permission to marry Gladys Namagu, an Aboriginal woman with whom he had been
living. Besides using the pages of the Northern Territory News to reveal the injustice of the case, he and author
Douglas Lockwood persuaded social welfare officials who attempted to return the woman to her tribal husband
in the bush that it was better for Namagu to remain in Darwin until the matter could be resolved. Due largely
to Bowditch’s advocacy and the fact that tribal marriages were not legally recognised, Daly and Namagu were
eventually married.
Similarly, in 1961, Bowditch organised a petition of some 2 500 Darwin citizens in a bid to prevent the
deportation of two Malay pearl divers. The White Australia Policy of the time dictated that the divers, who had
become redundant with the collapse of the pearling industry in Darwin, had to return home. Bowditch and other
prominent Darwin citizens organised a march on Government House and sheltered the Malays until community
pressure forced the authorities to reconsider.
Another of Bowditch’s involvements in social justice issues occurred after the Gurindji people walked off
Wave Hill Station in 1966 in protest against poor pay and living conditions. Bowditch wrote editorials in support
of the Gurindji claims for land. He was also instrumental in encouraging author Frank Hardy and journalist
Peter Murphy to report on the Gurindji situation.
Despite his commitment to intense crusades, Bowditch was a larrikin at heart. Whilst Editor of the Centralian
Advocate he and an Alice Springs photographer were responsible for perpetrating a flying saucer hoax which
prompted an official Royal Australian Air Force investigation. Added to Bowditch’s larrikinism was a tendency
towards alcohol which led to a number of court appearances on alcohol related charges. These in turn were partially
responsible for his removal as Editor of the Northern Territory News in 1973.
Another reason for Bowditch’s dismissal, however, was his failure to abide by conservative editorial policy of
the News after its purchase by Rupert Murdoch in 1964. When Bowditch was fired the paper’s editorial staff went
on a protest strike that lasted for about two weeks. Bowditch was not reinstated but a deal was negotiated whereby
he was offered employment as a special correspondent for Murdoch newspapers in southern states. Besides the
negotiated deal, and luckily for Bowditch, he won a Queensland lottery.
In 1974 he stood as a Labor candidate for Fannie Bay in the election for the Territory’s legislature. The Labor
Party suffered electoral disaster. Neither Bowditch nor any other Labor candidate was elected. Like many others
in Darwin, Bowditch lost almost everything he owned in Cyclone Tracy. Nevertheless, he remained in Darwin and
was active in the city’s massive clean up.
He worked in a number of jobs between 1974 and 1980. These included a position as public relations
consultant to a government department. He also wrote feature articles on the Territory for southern magazines.
In 1980 he joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a reporter for the current affairs program ‘Territory
Tracks’. He also wrote for the Darwin Advertiser and Star between 1980 and 1984. During that time he helped