The"BIG JIM" BOWDITCH SAGA
ESCAPE FROM LONDON
Jim's passage to Australia in 1937 may have been arranged through the Anglican Big Brother organisation, his mother using her church connections to assist him. The day he was supposed to board the vessel , Port Dunedin , sister Mary , upset at him going , put her head under the blanket when he entered her bedroom to say goodbye. His mother was emotional and tearful at the idea of her young son leaving home and going far away . His father gave him a hearty slap on the back.
Eventually he departed carrying a kitbag - but was back in half an hour . Word came through that the ship’s departure had been delayed and there was no need for him to come aboard . The following day there was another farewell. This time there was no return and he never saw his parents again, his father supposedly dying of a heart attack in the arms of his secretary during “a dirty weekend”.
Aboard ship, Jim was put to work under the chief steward, a tired-eyed homosexual . The steward grabbed him by the hair , made comments about his arse and tried to rape Jim . However , his boxing experience and fitness enabled him to fight off the man . The tussle took place in a cabin and they crashed about for five minutes until the steward gave up . The early part of the voyage was a nightmare because of Jim’s seasickness and the fear of further attack by the steward
He and another young lad also working passage polished brass , washed dishes, prepared vegetables , chipped at rust and painted. There was a short stopover in Cape Town , South Africa, where Jim bought souvenir postcards and sent them home. Magnificent albatrosses glided alongside the ship and Jim threw them tidbits. Sailors regailed him with stories about what happened to people who shot the birds
New Zealand, he felt, seemed the desirable destination for him. Crewmen backed his desire to go to NZ, saying it was more British than Britain. However, when the ship passed through Sydney Heads he knew Australia was the country for him . Besides, he had been given the name of a man in a Sydney suburb , Enmore, as a contact.
Because it was his job to clean up , Jim was one of the last to leave the ship ; he found that officials on the wharf did not seem to care where he was going. Nobody asked him if he had the six pounds which had been so hard to raise . With his kitbag slung over his shoulder, he went looking for the contact, only to find the man had moved on . Not only had the man moved , but the residence had been replaced by a baker’s shop owned by a Frenchman. The Frenchman, amused by Jim’s story, gave him a job as a dough stirrer and provided accommodation. The hospitable Frenchman showed him around Sydney and helped him look for jobs on hearing of Jim’s desire to go on the land.
The State government advertised for young people to work on an experimental farm at Glen Innes , in the New England area. No pay was offered but the rudiments of farming were taught and free dormitory accommodation and food were provided. This was a dream come true for Jim , and off he went to Glen Innes where he ploughed fields, rode horses , ripped out lantana , milked cows, looked after sheep and cattle dogs and learned how to use farm machinery. It was paradise in his estimation. He played rugby league as scrum half and five eighth for the Glen Innes team in what was a fierce competition.
After working at the farm he got casual work at Inverell and Warialda where he was a wheat lumper, lifting bags in excess of 150lb . This hard work contributed further to his physical development and capacity to toil for long periods. He discovered by working on various farms that Pommies got paid less than Australians . On one farm where he and an Australian lad worked looking after 80 cows, Jim got 10 shillings ($1) a week and the other fellow got one pound. From then on Jim disguised his English accent and said he came from Queensland . Cow cockies, he found, led a dour , hard existence, even though they were better off from the tucker point of view.
On a trip to Brisbane he read of a job paying 32/6 a week and keep at Gamarren Station , owned by the King family . He applied , got the job and caught the train to the station. The position mainly entailed killing and dressing sheep , clearing trees and even helping the laundry maid. Feeding 14 dogs was another chore. One of the stockmen on the station, Mick Kane, owned a superb Kelpie bitch which was outstanding rounding up sheep. Named Toy, the dog would only obey Kane’s instructions. An event took place involving Toy and his master which left an indelible mark on Jim’s memory.
Some sheep were being mustered and several of them kept on breaking away , sending up a large cloud of dust in the process. . The dog was working hard to round up the sheep , but they would break away . Kane , normally patient, was weary and lost his temper with the dog. For some reason, the “magic combination ” between the man and dog finally failed. In a towering rage , Kane lept from his horse, grabbed Toy by the back legs, swung her round and round his head and smashed her against the main gate post. She lay whimpering on the ground. Kane immediately sat alongside her and burst into tears. Nobody was game to interfere ; he was a tough egg , Mick. “ We just left him there,” said Jim. That man sat there for many days and nights with Toy, nursing it back to health . In a remarkably short time she was back on deck again . And our regard for this man hadn’t lessened at all . It was a relationship between animal and man that taught me a great deal. Their’s was a truly remarkable relationship .”
Jim clashed with a contract horse breaker, Joe Copel , over the way he ill-treated horses. Copel , according to Jim, hated horses and was paid 30 shillings ($3) a head to break them in . “The way he walked and moved , you could see he had suffered much from his horse breaking. Many bones had been broken over the years . He was bent and battered. His whole body was distorted . Joe would start off breaking a horse by hitting it in the head with a bag , choking it down and pouring water in its ears . Before mounting , he would go to a corner of the yard and urinate.
At a dance , Jim told Joe that he did not like the way he broke horses and a fight broke out. Joe fought like a wild horse . Some 10 months after Jim joined the hired hands on the station another young stockman , Jack Green, from the Miles area of Queensland , was engaged .Tall, strong and raw-boned, he and Jim got along well .
After a time they came to the common conclusion that working long hours and being treated “ like shit ” was not much of a life . They decided to go gold prospecting at Wellington , NSW, and seek their fortune. Jim had a pushbike and Jack went to Cunnamulla and bought himself one . They then made up swags, gave notice, and pedalled off for Eldorado.
When they arrived in Wellington they went to the pub and store and asked for instructions about how to prospect for gold. An old resident showed them how to make a sluice box from timber , with ripple irons and coconut matting. The oldtimer kindly gave them his own coconut matting to put in the sluice box as long as they promised to give it back when they decided to leave. Fair enough. Eager and fit, the two began digging and soon had the sluice box working. Because funds were low, they shot rabbits which were in abundance for food . Rabbits were boiled, fried and even fricaseed when there was enough money from prospecting to afford potatoes and onions. So many rabbits did they eat that they began to smell like them .The publican - storekeeper bought whatever gold they found and provided them with tea, flour, tinned meat and vegetables . Though he was grubstaking them, they were going out backwards because little gold was being won .
One day they decided to pull down their tents, pack their swags and pedal off . Before departure the coconut matting was returned with thanks to its kindly owner. Days later they were told by another prospector that matting held about 50 percent of the fine gold put through a sluice and the only way of getting it out was to burn it. Jim and Jack realised that they had probably been set up by the helpful prospector who, no doubt, had burned the matting when they returned it to him. You live and learn as you pedal through life.
