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Bowditch, right , in animated discussion at a city watering hole , a set of buffalo horns on the wall. Photo by Barry Ledwidge.
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Bowditch received
frequent visits from a skilled and amiable PR man, Allan Stewart
, when he was connected with the Humpty Doo rice project near Darwin. American investors and the Australian
government hoped Humpty
Doo would become " the
food bowl of
Asia. " While
nightclubbing with clients down
south , Stewart was asked to help with the troubled Territory Rice project. Reports that
geese were eating the rice
frightened off investors. The Armed Services had been called in
and used Bren guns , carbide guns, sonic screamers ,
shotguns and low flying aircraft
to try and frighten the geese
away.
An old warhorse himself ,
Stewart , who walked with a limp, had a varied background . In Sydney, he unsuccessfully contested
two elections against Labor
candidates after the second war . In one election he gave the fire brand Eddie Ward of East
Sydney a close run and
used a tailor’s dummy wearing a threadbare suit to show how much soldiers were appreciated
. He also failed to gain Liberal
pre- selection on another occasion by making rude comments about politicians and an unflattering description of a Liberal being a person with two feet firmly planted in the air .
By Peter Simon
At one stage he had
managed country shows for Australian radio and revue artists
like Willie Fennell, George Foster , Don Baker and Kitty Bluett.
He was even involved in the publishing of
an arithmetic book for children .
In PR fashion, Stewart, a
great raconteur , often did
things with a flourish and would order a waiter to take a bottle
of champers with his best
wishes to somebody he spotted in a
Darwin nightspot. As will be shown , he and Bowditch
had a long association right up to the end of their lives.
After his
services were no longer required at Humpty Doo, Stewart underwent a major career
change when he billed himself the Great White Hunter and
set up the Nourlangie Safari Camp
, 120 miles south east of Darwin.
The area teemed with waterfowl, buffalo, crocodiles and barramundi.
An old timber camp provided the
safari facilities but were
rough and ready. It was a
classic case of under-capitalisation .
The potential , however, was enormous and Stewart set about using his
undoubted PR skills and connections
to promote the venture and the NT.
Bowditch, of course,
gave Nourlangie good
coverage in the NT News to help
Stewart along. Through his contacts in Sydney, Stewart brought up two
photographers Ray Jamieson and Ernie McQuillan, to
take publicity photographs
of Nourlangie. They were out at the camp in June l959 when a flying saucer, described by a New Zealander , Coral Mason, as " a
red blob going up and down in the sky ", was
sighted.
A report on the sighting
went to the RAAF. Stirling Moss, the British
racing car driver and his wife
went to Nourlangie. Bowditch had the task of informing
Moss about the death of a close racing friend in
England . From America came safari experts making
10 films on big game hunting around the
world. Stewart flew south about once a week to appear on
the Westinghouse
Hour of Sport and did much to
promote the Territory.
Stories which came out of
Nourlangie were many . A rich
American big game hunter who
had a
huge trophy room back home, came to
Darwin with his special guns
to shoot at Nourlangie. Due to
poor eyesight, he had thick lens
glasses and looked a dangerous man to be wielding high powered rifles. At Nourlangie
he went to a primitive
outdoor dunny and when he pulled
the chain no water flowed from the cistern perched above his head
. Hearing the clang, clang of the chain
, Stewart quickly called to an Aborigine
to get a bucket of water. A ladder was
thrown up against the toilet, the
Aborigine clambered up with the bucket
and poured some water in the
cistern and quite a bit of it directly
on the Yank. The drenched hunter emerged
with water running down his glasses.
In another unfortunate
mishap, the American nearly choked himself on the clothesline while
walking about at night. On a
crocodile shooting trip with the
American things proceeded at a
slow pace. On several occasions while
they were driving along Stewart
remembered vital things which had not been loaded onto
the truck at the start
. On each occasion Stewart pulled up
under some shade and an Aborigine was
sent loping back to camp to pick up the missing gear. Tucker on the
trip was a hunk of beef and
some damper carried in a grubby hessian bag.
Two Melbourne men who had witnessed the misadventures of the
American big game hunter at Nourlangie
told me of their experiences , over
drinks, in the Hotel Darwin's Green Room. They laughed so much they literally had tears
running down their faces . They
said it had been
such an hilarious experience at
Nourlangie that they had not minded
the fact that their smelly
towels had not
been changed during their sweaty time in the camp .
The party thrown the night before the Melbourne men returned to Darwin by plane had also been memorable.
Stewart’s offsider who usually
got about barefooted and
in shorts, told the camp
Aborigines he was going " longa Darwin "
in the morning and needed a
shirt and a pair of shoes -"one
right foot shoe and one left foot shoe."
The Aborigines went away and came back with their meagre possessions from which
he selected his wardrobe for a return to civilisation
.
Nourlangie had
enormous potential but
had a cash flow problem. It became known that the Great White Hunter was hitch- hiking between Darwin and southern capitals to
appear on shows and in some court cases
. Stewart and his partner began stuffing baby crocodiles and selling
them to tourists. One day , Stewart,
wearing his usual broadbrimmed hat, limped into the public bar at the Hotel Darwin.
Some reporters from the NT News were there and called
Allan over for a
drink. Knowing Stewart was experiencing tough times, Bowditch went to
pay for the drinks. Stewart insisted that he pay for the shout himself,
and pulled out a big roll of notes .
Peeling off one of the bills, he threw it on the bar and said : "Thank Christ for baby
crocodiles ." Stuffed crocs, he
explained, were about his only source of income.
Due to a " thirsty
lawyer " failing to seek an adjournment in a case of domestic litigation , Stewart was
surprised to find himself arrested for contempt of court and lodged in
the Bennett Street lockup in Darwin,
prior to being transferred to
Fannie Bay Gaol for 30 days
. Word got out that
the White Hunter
was in the slammer at Bennet Street Police Station . Mates
in the nearby Vic Hotel gathered
under his cell window, passed in cigarettes and
serenaded him with the song The
Fannie Bay Blues. The Vic Hotel did the catering for
prisoners and publican Richard
Fong sent in a
bottle of beer hidden under a napkin with a
meal for
Stewart.
When it was discovered that
due to a survey error
Nourlangie camp was five miles
inside the Woolwonga Aboriginal Reserve
, it was closed down
by the NT authorities. However, with the help of
his friend Bowditch , a
protest meeting was held in Darwin and the Administrator set up an Appeals Board ( the first in the Territory’s history ), to hear
Stewart’s case. Stewart
represented himself at the hearing and
the lease was restored .
Stewart appeared in
a large beer advertisement in the
NT News in l970. It showed him , head
tilted back , cigarette in one hand,
downing a large glass of beer . In l972 Stewart
unsuccessfully stood as an
independent for the NT
Federal seat against the sitting
member, Sam Calder, known as " Silent
Sam". Stewart said the NT needed a more
vociferous and experienced voice . During his campaigning he addressed
the Women’s Electoral Lobby and
set out his platform .
Australia, he said, could support a population of 60 million . In an
attempt to capture the "donkey vote" in that election he had his name changed
by deed poll to Alexander
Allan-Stewart so that his hyphenated
name would be at the top of the
voting paper. Even if he did not get elected , he appeared on TV in
the Tommy Hanlon Show and was presented with the
White Hunter of the Week Award. NEXT
: The magician and his chain smoking pet monkey.
