THE DARWIN STAR MEDIA WARS , Part 1

(First in the exclusive REWIND THE PRESS ! series about the NT media )

*Front page of the dummy Darwin independent newspaper
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Drugged and in a confused , painful state due to burns sustained during an explosion following Cyclone Tracy , a woman in Darwin Hospital signed two documents which would have a dramatic impact on the Northern Territory political and media scene . One increased a mortgage to finance the start of an independent newspaper and the other was an application to register its name, The Darwin Star, strangely inspired by a blood and guts publication in Hong Kong .
The women whose signature made this daring venture possible was accountant , Sandra "Sandy " Byrnes ,wife of a former travelling salesman, taxi driver and oil driller , Kerry.

Wearing a bikini, Sandra was engulfed in flames when a fault in a washing machine ignited fumes from petrol being used to remove the adhesive from laundry rubber floor tiles that had lifted as a result of the cyclone. The door into the laundry slammed shut, the fumes built up and as the washing machine changed cycle , there was a spark and a loud explosion.

Her husband forced the door open, walked through flames, and directed Sandra, shocked and in pain , to the shower . She was also doused in iced water . Kerry then walked/ carried her to their car and sped to the hospital, his blistered feet sticking to the pedals along the way . The bikini had to be cut from her at the hospital. Placed in a saline bath and heavily dosed with morphine,she was in hospital for five months.

During that stressful period , The Star was born and performed more like a fiery comet than a faint glimmer of light in a distant galaxy as it took on Rupert Murdoch’s Northern Territory News in what became a battle to the bitter end .The cast of characters in this gripping yarn ,which includes a touchy feely green frog, reads like the Guys and Dolls of Damon Runyon's great short stories about Broadway .

Prior to the cyclone, Sandra and Kerry were involved in a small printing business, Graphic Systems, on the Stuart Highway, Stuart Park, with a partner, Dudley Hollands , who had worked for the Packers in NSW. As the business expanded , it was moved to new premises in Bishop Street, Winnellie and attracted a growing number of journalists, printers , photographers and graphic artists for boisterous after hours sessions .

Two journalists who regularly came to Graphic Systems were Jim Bowditch ,former editor of the NT News , and Peter Blake , member of a dynastic family of journalists . Blake had been involved with two other brothers and the notorious Jim Ramsay, called the Evil One and on a Murdoch "leper list" , in production of Sydney’s massively successful , audacious and irreverent King’s Cross Whisper . On the premises Blake and Bowditch produced North News , a newsletter of business, political and economic news sold on subscription to southern business interests . They also collaborated in the production of a government rural magazine .

Blake, now probably this very day doing his last shift as a sub editor on the New York Post, ending 60 years of journalism, had been chief sub editor on the Hong Kong paper, The Star, which was mainly staffed by colourful Australian journalists . News editor at the time was the dashing, handsome Steve Dunleavy, who went on to become a living legend in America , even the subject of a cult movie ; his old Sydney police rounds foot in the door style of reporting during the Son of Sam Murders in New York made him a national identity.

He visited the Boston Strangler in prison and wrote a book about him . Elvis Presley’s drug taking was revealed in another book. Through TV reporting in the US , Dunleavy became known as "Mr Blood and Guts". Steve also wrote a novel about the first female US president and a Big Apple watering hole much frequented by him etched his noble head in a glass panel. Yvonne Dunleavy co-authored the best selling memoirs of New York madam ,Xaviera Hollander's The Happy Hooker .

Dunleavy, showing signs of journalistic wear and tear , walking with the aid of stick , his hair white (jet black and swept back like Elvis in younger days in Sydney), retired from the New York Post in October 2008. At the farewell bash , Rupert Murdoch recounted how he had once written a $US30,000 bonus cheque for Steve ,who promptly went to a nightspot and lost it. Rupert wrote out a replacement cheque , but gave it to Steve’s partner, who put it down as a deposit on a house.

During drinking sessions at Graphic Systems , outrageous and colourful anecdotes about Hong Kong journos , the colony's extraordinary characters ( who was Nipples Nancy and what part of her anatomy stood out like cigar butts ?), the mysterious death in a nightclub and the disappearance of a quantity of gold were recounted. Peter Blake recently told Little Darwin the Hong Kong Star had been “a spritely tabloid much given to stories of bloody mayhem and students hurling themselves to their death after failing college entrance exams .” A banker who jumped from a tall building was splashed across the front page in more ways than one.

A former NT News sports editor, Dennis"Doggy" Booth , was another who worked on the colonial paper when Blake was there ; he devised a horse betting system which at first looked as if it would make all the reporters Hong Kong dollar millionaires , until they, inevitably , ended up losing their cheap tailor made shirts.

As a result of Cyclone Tracy and the early stages of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission , there was an influx of journalists from south , some dealing with Graphic Systems, where they produced community information newspapers . One of them was Peter Steedman, dubbed the Black Knight because of the way he dressed, who drove about Melbourne in a Jaguar which bore a message, something like STUFF MALCOLM FRASER . His transport nowadays is a Bentley. A former fiery editor of the Melbourne university papers, Farrago and Lot’s Wife, during the hectic Vietnam War period, he was involved in verbal and physical clashes with ASIO operatives, the right wing National Civic Council and conservative politicians who tried to both blacken his name and optics.

In London, he had been involved in a number of successful campaigns , including one which prevented a new TV channel being given to commercial interests, and ran the controversial Oz magazine office for a time while key players were fronting the Old Bailey. He and a mate, Jonathan Ball, also a political activist, who played a large part in reviving the Ballarat Chinese Joss House , were involved turning out various publications for the Darwin Reconstruction Commission,providing people evacuated south with information . The indomitable Steedman also drew up a report on how to deal with the community needs of natural disasters anywhere in the nation, which seems to have disappeared .

Then there was journalist Roger East, later killed by the Indonesians in East Timor, who had arrived with Sir Leslie Thiess , head of the Interim Darwin Reconstruction Commission.East , a longtime friend of Peter Blake’s, had also worked in Hong Kong, and often came to the printery to help Blake and Bowditch.

During production of various publications Kerry Byrnes was often instructed by the thirsty crew that as he was a rising media mogul with bundles of dough, he should make himself useful , go and get grog and something to eat, garlic bread and garlic prawns very much in favour. From time to time , it was strongly put that Graphic Systems should consider bringing out a badly needed , really good newspaper to take on the Northern Territory News .
Gravel voiced Steedman pointed out the printery was chock- a -block with crazed newspaper journalists , looked and sounded like a disorganised newspaper office , so it should launch a newspaper and it would have more helpers than Santa had elves. {Steedman will be the subject of a separate in depth report in this series .}
This wild idea grew wings , and Sandy and Kerry decided to give it a go. Peter Blake suggested the paper should be named after the Hong Kong paper. He even designed the logo for the proposed paper along the lines of the one in Honkers . Then the terrible explosion.

From Sydney came a bug -eyed journalist, one Ken MacAulay, intense, short of cash and transport, nicotine-stained, long suffering back pain, to be the first editor , with Bookie Blake ( he fielded at Fannie Bay), contributing anonymously from the wings .

In the dummy paper designed to show potential advertisers what it would look like , gardening notes were facetiously attributed to Sydney reporter Bob Staines, better known as “Big Betting Bob”, who had worked at the ABC Darwin in the early 1960s, a close friend of renowned turf writer, Max Presnell, nicknamed "Society Max", now of the Sydney Morning Herald , recently heard on the ABC giving tips for the Melbourne Cup.

Staines and Blake had run two fishing magazines in Sydney and they were often heard giving live radio reports on the best fishing spots in the Emerald City .

A racy political column in the mock up speculated about who would be the next NT Administrator to replace Jock Nelson who had resigned to contest the 1975 Federal election , describing Government House as one of the more salubrious and gracious pads in Darwin town. Darwin Navy chief, Captain Eric Johnston, a man of worth and girth, had been sounded out for the position, it continued , but the Navy had not been keen on the idea of losing a sea-going commander to the giddy social whirl of Darwin.
NEXT EDITION- Enter Santamaria,Nugan Hand Bank and CIA .

DARWIN SPIES

The interesting ABC documentary on Colonel Spry and ASIO, the Australian security organisation, contained a front page newspaper picture of Sergeant Greg Ryall of the Northern Territory Police with a beefy forearm around the throat of a Russian KGB gorilla at Darwin Airport in the dramatic Petrov Affair. ASIO compiled thousands of files on people -unionists, journalists,activists , politicians , public servants - anybody who spoke out about the establishment, it seems.


Many individuals , men and women, in the Territory were watched. Little Darwin has seen ASIO files in which the names of journalists at the NT News who received the communist newspaper,The Tribune, were listed . One ASIO report ,covering a meeting in Darwin , said a person had cheekily asked who was the ASIO representative at the gathering that evening. Waterfront workers received extensive attention from ASIO in bygone days .

It is unlikely that a man who has been allegedly "spying " on Darwin waterfront toilers of late is a member of the modern ASIO. Like something out of Get Smart, this person has been reported " hiding " behind trees,leading to him being dubbed Agent 13, Maxwell's Smart's unfortunate buddy who was always inside unlikely places such as cigarette machines, washing machines, trash cans ,fire hydrants and even disguised as a tree.

One local Get Smart fan says the guy doing all the eyeballing on the waterfront looks more like the evil KAOS character, Shtarker, Siegfried's over -zealous lackey with an abrupt personality. As a result of his activities ,there has been a name change for Darwin -Little Dubai.

DUBAI, YOU WILL RECALL, WAS WHERE HOWARD GOVERNMENT FINANCED SCABS WERE TRAINED TO TAKE THE JOBS OF AUSTRALIAN WATERFRONT WORKERS IN MELBOURNE. MILD MANNERED , TEA DRINKING, ROLL- YOUR- OWN BARRISTER , JULIAN BURNSIDE; ACTU SECRETARY , GREG COMBET, A BREEDER OF CAGE BIRDS, NOW A CRACKER POLLIE , AND FEISTY MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA BOSS, JOHN COOMBS , WERE KEY PLAYERS IN THAT EPIC 1998 CLASH, CALLED THE BATTLE THAT CHANGED AUSTRALIA.

There are other fascinating Territory angles to the documentary , but they will have to wait until another day when we have time to look through (find) our musty files.

" EXCESSIVE FAECES" HITS FAN AT DARWIN PORT CORPORATION

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A POSSIBLE DISPUTE AROSE WHEN , WITHOUT ANY CONSULTATION WITH THE MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA (MUA) , THE DARWIN PORT CORPORATION LET A CONTRACT TO A PRIVATE COMPANY TO CLEAN THE FRANCES BAY MOORING BASIN AREA TOILETS.

THE MUA , WHICH HAD BEEN CARRYING OUT THE WORK FOR MANY YEARS , LODGED A STRONG PROTEST WITH DPC CEO, ROBERT RITCHIE. NT MUA ORGANISER THOMAS MAYOR POINTED OUT THAT THERE IS A FIRM AGREEMENT THAT THE UNION MUST BE CONSULTED OVER ANY POSSIBLE CHANGE , IN WRITING, PRESUMABLY ON LADY SCOTT TISSUE PAPER, 14 CLEAR DAYS BEFORE ANY PROPOSED ALTERATION . OUTSOURCING TO A CLEANING COMPANY WITHOUT ANY REFERENCE TO THE MUA WAS CLEARLY A BREACH OF THAT AGREEMENT.

RITCHIE DID NOT REPLY PERSONALLY TO MAYOR . THROUGH THE COMMUNICATION TUBES CAME A RESPONSE ADMITTING THERE HAD BEEN AN OVERSIGHT BY THE CORPORATION IN NOT FIRST DISCUSSING THE MATTER WITH THE MUA.

HOWEVER, IT APPEARS THE DPC CLAIMS A CLASSIC CASE OF FLUNG DUNG ON THE TOILET WALL PROMPTED THE ANNOYING CHAIN OF EVENTS. IT SEEMS THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH ITINERANTS USING AND ABUSING THE CONVENIENCES , ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT . INSTEAD OF STEPPING UP THE WHARF SECURITY , THE DPC HAS RESPONDED BY SENDING IN SOMEBODY ARMED WITH A BRUSH , WHICH THE MUA SAYS WILL NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

THE DPC STRESSED THAT THE COMMERCIAL CLEANER WOULD BE WELL TRAINED , PERHAPS WITH A CHARLES DARWIN UNIVERSITY DIPLOMA IN ETHICAL CRAPOLOGY? , WHICH WOULD COME IN HANDY IF SWITCHED TO MATARANKA TO CLEAN UP THE MESS IN THE BEEF JERKY FACTORY.

SHAKEY ISLES

THE LATEST EMAIL FROM FRIENDS IN CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND, TELLS OF 2500 OVERSHOCKS SINCE THE CITY WAS HIT BY AN EARTHQUAKE . ALTHOUGH THE TREMORS SEEM LESS POWERFUL, THE FREQUENT SHAKING IS CAUSING FURTHER DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS NOT ALREADY DEMOLISHED . THE SOIL UNDER FOUNDATIONS IS BEING PULVERISED IN PLACES . SERIOUSLY , MANY KIWIS ARE THINKING OF MOVING TO AUSTRALIA .

CLOSER TO HOME , THE ERUPTIONS OF THE INDONESIAN VOLCANO MERAPI COULD HAVE CATASTROPHIC RESULTS IF IT EXPLODES LIKE KRAKATAU DID IN 1883, KILLING MORE THAN 40,000. LIKE A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION, IT WAS HEARD 3000 MILES AWAY . IN AUSTRALIA, IT WAS HEARD IN PERTH AS 23 CUBIC KILOMETRES WERE BLASTED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE, IN THE PROCESS DESTROYING THE ISLAND IN THE SUNDRA STRAIT , BETWEEN JAVA AND SUMATRA.

LAST OF THE FIGHTING EDITORS >>>>>> THE "BIG JIM " BOWDITCH SAGA , Part 6. LIFE IN THE LOLLY FACTORY

Former great Northern Territory News editor making emphatic point

The economic grind and Jim’s disenchantment with school combined to make him leave at the age of 14. Fortunately, while still at school , he had made the acquaintance of a remarkable man, Pat Martin, an early exponent of time and movement studies. A “mathematical wizard” and humanist, Martin was in his early twenties , and he and Jim got along well. It is not known how they came to meet , but Jim’s sister ,Mary ,recalled that she had been a babysitter for the Martins. A quietly spoken Irishman, Martin told Jim he would like him to work in a new industrial psychology department he was about to open in C & E. Morton Pty. Ltd., a huge canning works on East India Dock Road, Mill Wall, London, where they canned fish, meat, jams and also produced a wide range of confectionery , including acid drops.

Morton’s wanted a bonus system introduced similar to the one devised by Frenchman Charles Eugene Bedaux which gained notoriety as an exploiter of the workforce. In America the Bedaux technique had substantially increased output by offering workers a bonus payment for greater production . It became a method of weeding out slower workers, and there was much union suspicion about the time and movement study techniques from across the Atlantic. Jim said he believed the distrust of the Bedaux system was responsible for Australian trade unions banning all bonus systems in the late l930s.

At a wage of two shillings and sixpence a week , Jim went to work for Martin in the cannery . Men and women in the vast works were suspicious about Martin , his time and movement studies and the young men, including Jim, who worked for him.

According to Jim, Martin firmly believed that his mathematical variations on the Bedaux system would give the workers a greater share in the company’s profits. Martin explained to the workers -he was a great speaker, “but not a used car type”- that while the aim was to increase productivity, it would not be done at the expense of jobs. He gave an undertaking that workers who could not reach the production norm would be given more suitable jobs and not be fired. It was agreed the study should go ahead on trial for some months.

So Jim, complete with a stopwatch and clipboard , went to work as a time and movement observer in a confectionary packing section. He noted that girls on the production line were on their feet 10 hours a day. The monotonous work involved taking jars or bottles from a production line, laying them on a bench, sticking on labels, then placing them back on the conveyor belt. Because the girls and women were on their feet so long , they suffered from sore legs and extreme fatigue.

Jim told Martin the staff should have adjustable chairs to sit on to take the weight off their legs . He also pointed out the process of taking a container from a production belt to be labelled consumed a large amount of time . As a result of his suggestions and observations, chairs were supplied, the production line was adjusted to make labelling easier and faster , resulting in increased production .

What is more, the girls received a bit more pay. Some of them showed their appreciation by offering to take gawky Jim behind the chocolate box stack for a quick cuddle . He was too shy to avail himself of the offers by the saucy London lasses. Jim was given a bonus payment for his work and his wage went up to seven shillings and sixpence a week.

As he cycled to work he observed the grubby surroundings . His income helped his family in those tough times. Martin influenced Jim’s thinking as he often had him at home discussing working conditions, workers ’ pay and enlightened industrial psychology.

Despite the interesting and rewarding work, Jim wanted to move on . The grime of London , which he described as a nauseating place , and the poverty of the people bore down heavily on him . One of the abiding memories of London was the stench from glue factories where the workers , overcome by the putrid smell, rushed outside to vomit , and then returned to the fetid interiors.

His longing to leave developed into a hatred for London and what it did to people who lived in the sprawling city. Tension at home with his father added to the desire to get away. The seductive colonies beckoned. He still had this overwhelming feeling to be a farmer or an agricultural worker : “ I had a mad desire to milk cows, ride horses and plough fields. I hated London- this filthy, smog -filled , poverty- ridden bugger of a place.”

After deciding that he would “flee ” to either New Zealand or Australia , he made inquiries and found that it was sometimes possible to work your passage to these distant meccas . However, he was told that the colonies required that you had six pounds ($12) in your pocket when you landed there . That was a lot of money in those days .

Martin readily provided Jim with a glowing reference in the hope that he could find employment in the colonies in the field of industrial psychology. Nobody was able to inform him if industrial psychology was even used in NZ or Australia , still he was prepared to give it go.

Before Jim left the cannery, Martin arranged a meeting with the boss of Morton’s , hoping that he might even contribute some money for a passage out. However, the head man delivered a lecture for about half an hour during which he never mentioned money and warned that the colonies were rough places . Honesty and the virtue of hard work were emphasised.

Jim’s depression at not being able to raise funds lifted when a rich relative , Uncle Joshua Cornelius , who part –owned or had shares in some Welsh coalmines, asked to see him. “ Uncle Corny ” ,whose name was mentioned in hushed tones in the Bowditch household because of his wealth, lived in a mansion near Blackheath . Jim hurried to his well stocked fireside full of expectations. Uncle Corny, a Jew ,was married to a sister of Jim’s father .

Uncle Corny opened proceedings with another lengthy lecture which warned about bad women, keeping your nose clean and the necessity to work hard. Jim’s heart began to thump when dear Uncle Corny put his hand in his pocket... and pulled out a mere five shillings (50c) . This was much less than he had hoped to receive. It fell to Jim’s maternal grandfather , the man after whom he had been named, to provide the necessary cash to enable Jim to muster the money for a passage to a new life. It was not ingratitude that made Jim sign the necessary papers for his trip in the name of James Frederick Bowditch instead of Frederick James Bowditch. Everybody knew him as Jim , and he really did not like the idea of being called Fred.

MUSICAL CHAIRS AT THE PORT CORPORATION

GO ON HOLIDAYS OR ABSENT YOURSELF FROM THE OFFICE AT THE DARWIN PORT CORPORATION AND YOU MAY FIND THAT MORE THAN THE POTPLANTS AND PAPERCLIPS WERE REARRANGED WHILE YOU WERE AWAY. READERS WILL RECALL WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RESPECTED , LONGTIME DARWIN PORT HARBOURMASTER , BRUCE WILSON, WHO RECEIVED A SIGNAL WHEN HE WAS OVERSEAS INFORMING HIM THAT THERE HAD BEEN CHANGES BACK AT THE WHARF APRON , AND HE WAS REDUCED TO BEING ONE OF THE PORT’S PILOTS. A LEGAL MATTER ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF WILSON APPARENTLY ESCAPED THE ATTENTION OF THE MEDIA WHEN LISTED FOR HEARING LAST MONTH.


THE CITY WHARVES PRECINCT MANAGER RECENTLY RETURNED FROM A BREAK TO DISCOVER THAT DURING HER ABSENCE A NEW OVERSEEING POST, GENERAL MANAGER CITY WHARVES , WHICH SOUNDED VERY MUCH LIKE HER POSITION, HAD BEEN ADVERTISED .THIS NEW POSITION IS HELD BY ONE PETER RAINES .OUT OF RETIREMENT, HIS APPOINTMENT WAS ANNOUNCED OCTOBER 7 . A FORMER JOINT OWNER OF THE BANK OF QUEENSLAND DARWIN FRANCHISE, EX MANAGING DIRECTOR OF STERLING PROPERTY SERVICES NT, AND SAID TO BE EXPERIENCED IN CONTRACT MANAGEMENT, HE WAS THE CHAIRMAN , CULLEN BAY MARINE MANAGEMENT

BIG BROTHER GOOGLE

Neurotic Little Darwin staff members now come to work permanently made up to look like warty Halloween characters , a form of disguise, convinced that Big Brother is watching their every move. Why ? After posting several spoofy items about Prime Ministers, a rodent called Lazarus, and a snake’s duodenum -up popped Google adverts linked to these subjects. One offered the opportunity to keep in touch with PM Kevin Rudd’s website; another seriously offered pest control services for rats and mice and another recommended a pet business which provides reptile supplies.

It appears every golden word that is posted on the Little Darwin blog is scrutinised in a bid to work out what kind of weirdos we are and , more importantly , how can we be induced to spend our Monopoly money .