Moreton Island lighthouse enabled Bowditch to unwind.
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At long last , Jim Bowditch was discharged from the Army on April 24, 1946 , out of uniform and living in Melbourne . Politics became one of his new interests . For a time he was employed in the Repatriation Department as a clerk , but found it a soul destroying job with lurks being worked all over the place. He underwent a psychiatric examination and some friends advised him beforehand that if he put on a bit of an act he could get a pension. Apparently he was told , as if he did not already know , that he appeared to have a highly development antipathy to authority.
He made contact with some people in the Australian Labor Party and through them met Prime Minister Ben Chifley and John Dedman , Minister for Post-War Reconstruction .
While staying in a boarding house he met and became interested in another resident , redheaded Iris Nellie Neal Hargreaves, keen on ballet , daughter of a colonel . According to Bowditch, she had rowed with her mother and moved into the boarding house. She and Jim went out together and eventually married .
To escape the boredom of the Repatriation Department Jim went to Brisbane where he stayed in a boarding house and scanned the situations vacant looking for employment . The ex- commando then went from door to door selling Safe Way iron stands for 4/6 each , his profit being a shilling on each one . In one day alone he sold 32 iron stands . Sales were helped by publicity about several house fires started by hot irons.
Bowditch practised with an iron and a stand until he could just toss an iron from any angle and it fell into place on the stand. It was a bit like a gun fighter becoming dexterous with his shooting iron . So proficient was he at selling iron stands that the slick operator in charge of the distribution of the stands wanted him to teach other salesmen. Hearing that Burns Philp had a warehouse full of faulty floor mops that were being dumped, Bowditch went and inspected them. He discovered that due to a manufacturing fault there was not enough wire holding the mop in place , but with a bit of twisting they could be fixed. So he became the proud yet anxious owner of a large quantity of defective mops which he also offered from door to door for a substantial profit . While on the sales beat he wore his old Army boots which he found handy for kicking dogs which rushed out at him . One of his slick sales practises was to stand admiring some flower or shrub as the lady of the house opened the door. Willing to try his hand at anything , he also sold insurance and toilet chemicals.
One day Bowditch met an old Army buddy in Brisbane and they headed for a pub . Later they caught a tram to go to another hotel . His friend suddenly jumped from the tram , sprinted across to a man who was standing on the footpath and king hit him. When the man fell to the ground ,he was kicked. Then Jim’s friend ran back to the tram . When Bowditch asked him what had prompted the attack , he was told the victim had been a sadistic guard in a military prison and Jim’s friend had promised to get even with him if they ever met again in civilian life.
A position was advertised for a lighthouse keeper who could operate a radio , do morse code and read ships ’ flags on (Cape) Moreton Island, off Brisbane . Bowditch made a successful application . Iris came up from Melbourne and joined him on the island . Life on the three-man station helped Bowditch to unwind and he did much reading. During that time he developed an urge to write something but did not do so. Food supplies were received every 17 days . One of the lightkeepers used to drink rum neat saying it had cured a bad ulcer . During his time on the island Bowditch began writing letters to the ALP . Iris became bored with the isolation and they returned to Melbourne .
An ASIO basic report compiled on Bowditch in 1950 said that after the war he had worked as a salesman on his own behalf and then for C. Deakin and Co, Brisbane ,until November 1947 when he was engaged as a clerk for the Repatriation Commission , Melbourne . From there, the report, making no mention of his time as a lighthouse keeper , said he had transferred to the Department of Works and Housing.
According to Bowditch , Iris did not know much about politics and her parents were “ Tories”. Bowditch resumed contact with Labor people in Melbourne and was personally told by Minister Dedman that the government was planning a soldier settlement in Central Australia .
This information prompted Bowditch to take an animal husbandry correspondence course to achieve the long held desire to become a farmer. Through his father-in-law’s influence, he was able to obtain a job as paymaster in the Alice Springs office of the Works and Housing Department . The idea behind going to Alice was for Bowditch to get in on the ground floor of the proposed soldier settlement scheme and have a cattle station of his own. As originally outlined to him , the soldier settlement scheme would have involved spending a total of 10, 000 pound ($20,000) on properties of 500 square miles in size on which there would be an army hut . Time would show that he was not destined to be a cowpuncher. In any case , the soldier settler scheme for Central Australia did not eventuate. NEXT: Alice Springs -early impressions and characters.
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At long last , Jim Bowditch was discharged from the Army on April 24, 1946 , out of uniform and living in Melbourne . Politics became one of his new interests . For a time he was employed in the Repatriation Department as a clerk , but found it a soul destroying job with lurks being worked all over the place. He underwent a psychiatric examination and some friends advised him beforehand that if he put on a bit of an act he could get a pension. Apparently he was told , as if he did not already know , that he appeared to have a highly development antipathy to authority.
He made contact with some people in the Australian Labor Party and through them met Prime Minister Ben Chifley and John Dedman , Minister for Post-War Reconstruction .
While staying in a boarding house he met and became interested in another resident , redheaded Iris Nellie Neal Hargreaves, keen on ballet , daughter of a colonel . According to Bowditch, she had rowed with her mother and moved into the boarding house. She and Jim went out together and eventually married .
To escape the boredom of the Repatriation Department Jim went to Brisbane where he stayed in a boarding house and scanned the situations vacant looking for employment . The ex- commando then went from door to door selling Safe Way iron stands for 4/6 each , his profit being a shilling on each one . In one day alone he sold 32 iron stands . Sales were helped by publicity about several house fires started by hot irons.
Bowditch practised with an iron and a stand until he could just toss an iron from any angle and it fell into place on the stand. It was a bit like a gun fighter becoming dexterous with his shooting iron . So proficient was he at selling iron stands that the slick operator in charge of the distribution of the stands wanted him to teach other salesmen. Hearing that Burns Philp had a warehouse full of faulty floor mops that were being dumped, Bowditch went and inspected them. He discovered that due to a manufacturing fault there was not enough wire holding the mop in place , but with a bit of twisting they could be fixed. So he became the proud yet anxious owner of a large quantity of defective mops which he also offered from door to door for a substantial profit . While on the sales beat he wore his old Army boots which he found handy for kicking dogs which rushed out at him . One of his slick sales practises was to stand admiring some flower or shrub as the lady of the house opened the door. Willing to try his hand at anything , he also sold insurance and toilet chemicals.
One day Bowditch met an old Army buddy in Brisbane and they headed for a pub . Later they caught a tram to go to another hotel . His friend suddenly jumped from the tram , sprinted across to a man who was standing on the footpath and king hit him. When the man fell to the ground ,he was kicked. Then Jim’s friend ran back to the tram . When Bowditch asked him what had prompted the attack , he was told the victim had been a sadistic guard in a military prison and Jim’s friend had promised to get even with him if they ever met again in civilian life.
A position was advertised for a lighthouse keeper who could operate a radio , do morse code and read ships ’ flags on (Cape) Moreton Island, off Brisbane . Bowditch made a successful application . Iris came up from Melbourne and joined him on the island . Life on the three-man station helped Bowditch to unwind and he did much reading. During that time he developed an urge to write something but did not do so. Food supplies were received every 17 days . One of the lightkeepers used to drink rum neat saying it had cured a bad ulcer . During his time on the island Bowditch began writing letters to the ALP . Iris became bored with the isolation and they returned to Melbourne .
An ASIO basic report compiled on Bowditch in 1950 said that after the war he had worked as a salesman on his own behalf and then for C. Deakin and Co, Brisbane ,until November 1947 when he was engaged as a clerk for the Repatriation Commission , Melbourne . From there, the report, making no mention of his time as a lighthouse keeper , said he had transferred to the Department of Works and Housing.
According to Bowditch , Iris did not know much about politics and her parents were “ Tories”. Bowditch resumed contact with Labor people in Melbourne and was personally told by Minister Dedman that the government was planning a soldier settlement in Central Australia .
This information prompted Bowditch to take an animal husbandry correspondence course to achieve the long held desire to become a farmer. Through his father-in-law’s influence, he was able to obtain a job as paymaster in the Alice Springs office of the Works and Housing Department . The idea behind going to Alice was for Bowditch to get in on the ground floor of the proposed soldier settlement scheme and have a cattle station of his own. As originally outlined to him , the soldier settlement scheme would have involved spending a total of 10, 000 pound ($20,000) on properties of 500 square miles in size on which there would be an army hut . Time would show that he was not destined to be a cowpuncher. In any case , the soldier settler scheme for Central Australia did not eventuate. NEXT: Alice Springs -early impressions and characters.
