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| Bowditch late in life |
In one house
raid a Stayput Malay hid in a
bathroom, armed with a thong . He felt certain that a searching police officer saw him reflected in
a mirror , but did not make an arrest. The
Malays were hiding in adjoining houses in Gregory
Street , Parap , at this stage. Following the narrow escape, Brian Manning held a meeting in his residence , The
Kremlin , and it was decided
that something drastic had to be done.
As a result of the
emergency meeting , Manning
consulted Bowditch who said
the Malays should be moved from Darwin
to a farm near Batchelor , the former Rum
Jungle uranium mine township. The
farm , Milton Springs , was
owned by Jack and Esther
Meaney , mentioned earlier in this book . Apart from
Mrs Meaney having been involved
with the Peace Council , she and her
husband once had a farm not far
from the Bowditch residence at Fannie
Bay . There was a minor problem with the plan-Bowditch was not exactly sure of the location of Milton Springs.
One or both of the Malays may have actually been
lodged in the roof at the Bowditch residence before
the plan to move them out of
Darwin got underway. Late at night , a convoy of three cars set out from
Darwin and headed down the track . In the first was Des
Robson, of the Anti- Deportation Committee ; Manning was in the second and , bringing up the rear , with the
Malays , was Bowditch. A system
warning of the presence of police
was devised which involved pumping the
brakes quickly three times so
that stop lights were seen by the following vehicle .
In the event that they came across a roadblock the plan was that the Malays would get out of the car , walk through the bush past the police and rejoin the convoy later on. Manning said there was incredible pressure on them "every inch of the way ".They were surprised not to encounter one roadblock. They knew there had been a roadblock at the 11-mile during the day, but it was not there that night . If they had been caught by police , Manning said Bowditch would probably have lost his job.
In the
tradition of the " best laid plans of revolutionaries ", Manning said
they missed the turn off to Milton
Springs. The first two cars carried on to Adelaide River
where they almost did a U-turn in front of the police station . They
had a quick whispered conference on the
side of the road and wondered where
Bowditch was with the Malays
because they could not see his car.
The reason why
his vehicle could not be
seen was simple
: travelling at 90 mph , Bowditch’s car had a blowout and it
ran off the road into the bush ,
terrifying his passengers . Manning, sensing there had been some trouble with the car , turned back ; his spare
tyre replaced the one
which had blown .
Still uncertain of the
location of their destination, they were "
creeping" about Batchelor
at three or four in the morning . They found some
Aborigines and were given directions .
Milton Springs carried a warning sign which read something like NO GROG , NO FRUIT, NO GINS , NO
TRESPASSERS. Bowditch quickly explained
the situation to the Meaneys, who
readily agreed to hide the
Malays, which they did for several weeks.
The springs after which the property derived its name were a short distance away and the Malays camped nearby .
During the period the Malays
were relaxing near the
springs the manhunt -complete with roadblocks
- continued in Darwin. Jack
Meaney was in Adelaide River one day when
a policeman said, " I suppose you
are hiding those Malays out at Milton Springs ?" Jack
just laughed, and invited the policeman to check out the
place. NEXT : Canberra buckles .
