Bowditch believed the art of public speaking should be taught so pupils learn to marshall facts and debate issues. Close family friend, Hilda Muir, is closely listening to every word . - Action shot by ace photographer,Barry Ledwidge,of 422 Images.
************************************************************
During his travels , Jim Bowditch sent home exciting letters to his family in London . His sister ,Mary, remembered one in which he described killing snakes by grabbing them by the tail and cracking them like a whip.
There were many other people on the track seeking work and food. Rations were doled out by the government in those days . The travelling dole was a little more than five shillings (50c)worth of rations a week - tea, sugar , flour, maybe a can of meat. To be eligible for the dole , you had to have travelled at least 20 miles from the last point where you received assistance. As towns in the outback were a long way apart it kept the jobless on the double . It also stopped the unemployed from getting organised and making a stand against authority . At Moree ,Jim and Jack joined a large number of unemployed men . Because it was so hot , many of the men who were on foot did not want to continue on .
This is Bowditch’s account of what transpired : “ We were fairly tired and yarned about the lack of money and the injustice of the dole system . We decided to go en masse and ask the sergeant of police for permission to stay on and collect the dole instead of having to move off again. I was a bit opinionated in those days and had my bit to say . As a result , I was elected to be the spokesman.
"I had this firm belief in the basic kindness of the human race . After a feed of damper and treacle, about 80 of us marched up to the police station . The police had been warned in advance about our coming . We trudged up to the station and there was a gigantic red- headed sergeant who came out and confronted us with a revolver and a rifle . He demanded to know what we wanted .
" I gave a speech in which I said that we were tired, that it was more than 20 miles to the next town and we would like to spend another week in town, so we would appreciate him handing out 5/7 worth of rations. He refused in a very belligerent and emphatic manner. Lurking behind him were two other police with rifles.
"I kept on talking , arguing ,you might say , with all this crowd pushing behind me . Finally , the copper did his block , stepped forward and drove his fist right into my face, breaking a tooth in half . Other teeth were damaged and had to be eventually removed. I went down in a welter of blood . Everyone scattered. You have no basis from which to argue when the police are armed. I staggered to my feet and made it back to the camp. Fellows there patched me up and advised me not to stand too close to a policeman in the future.”
Battered Bowditch and his mate Jack rode off on their bicycles . They headed for Jack’s hometown -Miles - in Queensland . There they obtained contract work ringbarking wattle and ironbark.
Times were so tough the going rate for ringbarking was 2/7 an acre. They were able to get a contract for 2/8 an acre for a large area , but that was only because it was a more difficult block to cut. It was hard, grinding work. His friend Jack could handle up to five and a half acres a day. In Jim’s case he was hard pressed doing half an acre at first. There was plenty of water and the area abounded in wallabies which were trapped with wire loops . However, they ate so much wallaby , johnny cakes and treacle, Jim developed spots before his eyes. A doctor told him this was due to grease in the johnny cakes which affected his liver.
Occasionally they were able to vary their diet with eggs and poultry from Jack’s parents. One thing he learned while roaming in the outback was to always wash your dishes at night, never leave them overnight with food attached as they were hard to wash in the morning. It was a habit he followed for the rest of his life.
When war broke out ,Bowditch felt certain the British would surely stop the Germans. He , however, wrote to his parents and suggested he should come home and join the army. When the evacuation of Dunkirk took place , he knew the situation in Europe was very serious and that he should do something about the situation because his family was under threat. In fact, his brother John, a pacificist at heart, was at Dunkirk when the German blitzkrieg swept the British into the sea. John went on to become a parachutist with the Red Devils commandoes . Peter went straight from Colfe’s Grammar School into the RAF as a tail gunner and was badly injured when his plane , returning from a bombing raid , crashed and burst into flames at Lincoln .
Young David was evacuated to a safe area with his school and when his mother rang up to ask after him she was told that he had run away five days previously . He had joined the merchant navy by telling them he was 17 instead of 15 . On a ship which was dive bombed , he was so shocked by the experience he told officers his real age and asked to go home. He returned to the family in great disgrace and the school and other people were reprimanded. Buildings near Grandpa Manning’s printery were hit by bombs. Mary looked after her grandfather in the Lewisham printery premises . During an air raid he took shelter in a small room instead of going into the basement and was trapped in there because the lino lifted and the door would not open .
Deciding that he must join the conflict, Jim jumped the rattler to Brisbane intending to enlist. He travelled in a railway truck with some swagmen in a load of stinking hides. The train pulled into a siding and he could hear the sound of something striking canvas. It was a policeman with a truncheon trying to flush out the bums . The whacking noise got closer and closer ; occasionally there was a yelp. Fearing he would have his head split open, he revealed himself to the policeman, a large smiling man, who took him and others to the lock up .
The officer proved to be friendly. Jim chopped some wood for the policeman’s wife and received bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. Cell doors were left open. And the officer told Jim where he could catch another train, a mile down the track, where it had to slow down. Another bit of advice from the cop was that he should jump off the train before it got into Brisbane because of further police checks.
Acting on that advice, he jumped from the train just before Brisbane and spent the first night camped in a park. The next day he went to the Redbank Recruiting Centre and enlisted on July 1, 1940. He was nearly 20 years of age and 5ft 81/2 inches tall. During his medical examination the military men remarked on his physical development- the hard life had made him lean and muscular . NEXT : At War.
Acting on that advice, he jumped from the train just before Brisbane and spent the first night camped in a park. The next day he went to the Redbank Recruiting Centre and enlisted on July 1, 1940. He was nearly 20 years of age and 5ft 81/2 inches tall. During his medical examination the military men remarked on his physical development- the hard life had made him lean and muscular . NEXT : At War.
