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| Photo by Kerry Byrnes |
Knowing that the Northern Territory News in Darwin was after a new managing editor, ace journalist Douglas Lockwood suggested Bowditch for the position to Bob Freeden , who at the time was general manager of the paper. Freeden telephoned Don Whitington in Sydney and suggested Jim’s appointment because he was such a good news gatherer in Alice.
Apart from that , Freeden
had recently married a Darwin
Hospital nurse, Norma Oakley ,
and wanted to go south .
His wife had come to
Darwin from Adelaide at the age of
19 . On arrival, she had been warned about
mixing with journalists , said to be “
drunken barbarians”.
She had been on duty
in casualty at Darwin Hospital when
prospector Jack Gardner , who later made his
fortune in uranium, was brought in by police for
an examination.
On that occasion he had
been fairly well dressed in khaki , an unusual condition for the bushie .
She had cause to remember Gardner
because he had a
geiger counter with him . As he had
been moved to a ward
for treatment, he asked her to
look after his geiger counter. This she
did . Later on, he was discharged and
retrieved his counter
which she had stored in
casualty. As Gardner had claimed to be the composer of poetry which he described as , with a wink, “verses for
nurses ”, I asked Mrs Freeden if gummy
Gardner had made any bedside recitations for the nursing staff. She laughed , said no , and added that had
looked very lean and in need of some “tlc”.
In his book , URANIUM HUNTERS , Ross Annabell
wrote that Gardner, suffering from hookworm, dosed
himself with medicine used to worm dogs. A warning label on the bottle said it was not
to be taken by humans. After taking a swig
of dog wormer , he would follow it up with a glass of Epsom Salts
which had a purging effect .
It is evident from an event
which transpired about the end
of September l954 that Bowditch
was intent on moving to Darwin
some time in the near future .
From Darwin came two jubilant reporters
hopeful of soon becoming tycoons- Ross Annabell and
the ABC Darwin
regional journalist , John Crew.
Crew was making a down the
track tour and Annabell
came along for the ride. Bowditch and Crew frequently
spoke to each other over the telephone in connection with news stories.
Crew was in the prospecting syndicate with Annabell and on the way to Alice they called on
mining entrepreneur Al McDonald, known as the Maori Mayor of
Tennant Creek , to pick up 500 pounds ( l000 dollars) from
him for a down
payment on the uranium
find, Annamount , discovered
by Annabell . McDonald , a boxer in his earlier days , had struck it rich on the Tennant Creek goldfield .
The journalists
called on Bowditch
with champagne to celebrate their
good fortune. Annabell tried to talk Bowditch out
of taking on the editorship of the NT News . The
problems of dealing with Eric White and Associates were
explained . Despite having warned Jim against
taking the helm at the NT News ,
Annabell passed on information to Betty
about how to obtain furniture , which was in short supply in
Darwin. He advised her to go along to house clearance auctions
when people were selling up to go south.
On the way back to Darwin , Annabell and Crew again called into Tennant Creek and picked up the cheque from McDonald . After some celebratory drinks they set off for Darwin, convinced they would soon be filthy rich . After driving for some time , they sheepishly discovered they had taken the wrong turn and were actually heading back to Alice-the opposite direction to Darwin
Just before Christmas ,
Freeden squeezed his bulk into a
bullnose Morris in Darwin and , accompanied
by his wife , set off for Sydney
to begin a new life with Eric White and Associates. After
eight free and easy years in
Darwin , during which he did not
let the truth interfere with a good story , working for the prominent PR
firm would be something of a
culture shock , but he would go on
to become a highly successful
businessman with a Jaguar or two in the
garage .
Freeden eventually set up his own PR firm , Freeden and Strachan
, with clients like
Coca Cola, Union Carbide, a Swiss watch company , and a Swedish car firm .
Freeden also started a chain of
business newsletters and a travel and
tourist industry trade newspaper,
Travel Talk . Another area in which
Freeden was at the forefront in
Australia was dial-a-service.
NEXT : The important Sydney
interview about the Darwin editorship.
