A Little Darwin blast from the past
The 1945 official book, Victory Roll, The RAAF at War, carried an article about the end of WWll and the Catalinas which flew in medical supplies for the thousands of prisoners of war in Singapore .
One of them , Sergeant Adair Macalister " Chill " Blain , in the Changi hospital, was the Independent Member for the Northern Territory in the House of Representatives , Canberra , reelected during his captivity .
Sergeant Blain, a surveyor, had worked in Queensland and the Northern Territory , twice wounded in WWl, heard of his reelection on a secret radio set constructed by his fellow prisoners.
On returning to parliament soon after his release , wearing a crumpled uniform and two rows of medals , he received a standing ovation , then went off and rested for two months to get over his wartime ordeal during which he had sold his gold fillings to get medicine for sick comrades.
He lost the Territory seat in 1949 to Jock Nelson, ALP, whose campaign was assisted from Alice Springs by Jim Bowditch, later editor of the Northern Territory News in Darwin .
In the same volume there is mention of Group Captain Dixie Chapman ,of Adelaide , who had served in the Middle East and England during earlier years, commanded RAAF squadrons in the Western Desert, took over control on Bougainville, where he represented the RAAF at the surrender of Japanese forces.
In later years , following involvement in the Korean war and a spell as Air Attaché Washington, Chapman was put in charge of the RAAF base in Darwin and had dealings with Bowditch at the News over the low level bombing of nearby Quail Island .The island featured in Aboriginal Dreamtime and was a turtle breeding ground.
As part of the long campaign to stop the bombing , Bowditch ran an editorial , saying turtles were in the soup and mentioned the pitter patter of little children's feet, headed : CLOMP, SLITHER CLOMP. The theme being that mother turtles would never hear the sound of baby turtle flippers on Quail Island because of RAAF bombing.
On reading this amazing editorial, Dixie Chapman , short in stature, was driven to the News office in his staff car and firmly told Bowditch he had read a lot of bullshit in his life, but this editorial took the prize for the worst ever . Bowditch rolled about in his chair, laughing , the air chief joining in .The RAAF eventually stopped bombing the island.
(Changi,Blain, Chapman.)
