In Queensland , under the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act of 1939 , a permit had to be granted "for the celebration " of the marriage of an Aboriginal with a person "other than an Aboriginal ".
Recently sighted were two applications under the Act for permits in 1963. One , approved and signed by the Queensland Director of Native Affairs, Cornelius O'Leary related to a 23 year old Aboriginal woman , a domestic , born at Mapoon Mission , on the western tip of Cape York , in the Gulf of Carpentaria , and a 29 year old stockman , both of Charters Towers. Attached was a statement of particulars, signed by both the bride and bridegroom , his father also a stockman , and a minister of religion. The bride's father was described as a farmer,living in Stanthorpe .
The other permit, which had obviously been carried around for a long time , reinforced with tape along the folds , without supporting details , contained the names of the two parties , signed by O'Leary.
Gladys , born with a physical handicap, one leg exceedingly thin , was said to have been operated on by tribal elders so that she could not have children . There were many scars on her body and she had experienced a tough life in Western Australia and the NT before she met Mick , an illiterate drover ; in Katherine , he was charged with cohabitating with a ward , said he wanted to marry her , but was refused permission to do so .
A sympathetic police officer suggested he should contact the editor of the Northern Territory News who might be able to help him out . Daly rang Bowditch , who did more than help ; he quickly involved his friend , lawyer Dick Ward , in the case .
Gladys was brought to Darwin and housed in the Aboriginal compound at Bagot . Bowditch invited Melbourne Herald journalist Douglas Lockwood to come with him to Bagot and check on departmental claims she could not marry Mick because she was already tribally married to a man in WA.
She admitted to having lived with a a man in her tribe in WA but she could not be tribally married because she could not have children . Over and over she said she wanted to marry Mick .
Infuriated by the officials at Bagot who refused her clear statement that she wanted to Marry Mick , Bowditch took an audacious step the very next day . He clambered over the fence at Bagot , off limits to all whites without a pass , found Gladys, got her to muster her few possessions, and " kidnapped her "-took her home in his car , where Mick was waiting under a banana tree . The two hugged .
Bowditch then drove off and obtained a five shilling permit to employ an Aborigine , Gladys Namagu , before anybody in authority was aware . The Gladys and Mick love story became a national story, raised in federal parliament. In an editorial, Bowditch asked : "Can it be that the Welfare Department considers men who sleep with Aboriginal women are not the right type to marry them ? If that principle was applied generally , a great many marriages between whites would never take place . "
Bishop J. P. O'Loughlin of the Catholic Church said he could not approve of the marriage. However , he set up a committee to investigate the case .The man Gladys had lived with in WA was brought to Darwin and said he had not been tribally married to her because she could not have children . Bishop O'Loughlin then announced there was no impediment to the marriage taking place in a Catholic Church, which it did. The marriage lasted seven years ... ( By Peter Simon ).
