The NT News in the old Tin Bank building, Smith Street, Darwin,in late l950s. The Holden car belonged to linotype operator Alf Shearman, a Queenslander.
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From Alice Springs , Bowditch kept a close watch on the new NT News in Darwin because it challenged the long established union paper, the lusty up -the- workers Northern Standard, in existence since the l920s, for which he provided a regular column called ALICE LANDLINE . He felt the NT News was a sign of southern media interests moving into the Territory and that the Centralian Advocate,which he now edited , could be vulnerable to attack .
From Alice Springs , Bowditch kept a close watch on the new NT News in Darwin because it challenged the long established union paper, the lusty up -the- workers Northern Standard, in existence since the l920s, for which he provided a regular column called ALICE LANDLINE . He felt the NT News was a sign of southern media interests moving into the Territory and that the Centralian Advocate,which he now edited , could be vulnerable to attack .
By Peter Simon
The move to start the newspaper in Darwin had created some interesting bedfellows. Key figures in the project were Don Whitington and Eric White. Whitington , managing director of Australian Press Services Limited and former chief of the Canberra bureau of the Frank Packer owned Australian Consolidated Press , had strong links with the ALP. White , head of the powerful public relations firm, Eric White and Associates, had been public relations director for the Federal Liberal Party from l944-l947, bringing him into close contact with Robert Menzies . White went on to write several papers on public relations and propaganda .
Whitington, in partnership with White, had launched a weekly newsletter called Inside Canberra in l948 and the Chifley Labor government had been impressed by its objectivity. PM Ben Chifley may have originated the idea for the Darwin newspaper. Chifly was said to be obsessive about Communists and regarded the Northern Standard as a Communist publication .
Whitington was approached by the Labor government in l949 and asked to look at the possibility of starting a paper in Darwin. Dr John Burton, head of External Affairs (later Foreign Affairs ) in the Chifley Government told Whitington the Labor government was worried that Darwin , as the first port of call for visitors from Europe, did not have a “ reputable newspaper” .
Whitington responded by telling Burton neither he nor White had enough money to open a newspaper, estimated to be up to 20,000 pound ($40,000). Told that the government could help in the way of shipping freights and advertising, Whitington went to Darwin and sounded out the local business community for funds. Initially, the Chinese business sector indicated it would put up money . However, much more was needed. Whitington subsequently wrote that there was a Communist phobia in Darwin and that he felt the idea that the Standard posed a threat to national security was ludicrous. Funds were raised from various sources and the plant of a small Darwin job printer , John Coleman , was obtained for 1000 one pound($2) shares in Northern Territory News Services Ltd .
Whitington asked his former boss, Frank Packer , if he would like to put money into the new paper. Packer declined to subscribe but offered the services of his head printer, George Stanbridge , to help select secondhand equipment for Darwin . An old quad-crown flatbed press which was used to print labels on cardboard cartons for Arnott’s biscuits was purchased. It cost something like 50 pound ($100) , but took 500 pound ($1000) to move to Darwin. It printed one side only and the sheets then had to be fed back to do the other side , a laborious , time consuming process. Two linotype machines were also purchased , one coming from Smith’s Weekly.
When the Chifley government was voted out in 1949 , Canberra seemed to lose interest in the Darwin newspaper proposal. But when Larry Anthony became Acting Minister for the Interior he visited Darwin , came back and called Whitington in to discuss the project. Anthony, father of Doug Anthony , discussed the problem of finding premises for the newspaper.
It was subsequently arranged through government channels that the former English Scottish and Australian Bank building in Smith Street, used by the Navy as a store , would be made available . Known locally as the “Tin Bank “ it was a prefabricated building said to have been shipped to Darwin from India in the l880s. It was a rusty and dirty old building which had some bullet holes from WW11 . There was a verandah on one side, which was turned into an office and staff quarters . During the Wet ,the building was hemmed in by two metre high speargrass on three sides.
Whitington had been warned that watersiders planned to dump any printing equipment for the new paper into the harbour . The printing plant was consigned to Darwin in parts disguised as plumbing equipment and other non suspicious objects.
Even before the new paper was up and running , Whitington was the subject of an attack by the Standard in May l950 for “ spreading lies and libels about Darwin and its citizens” in an article he wrote for the Sydney Daily Telegraph . Whitington, the Standard trumpeted , had written that Communists ran Darwin and its hospital ; the Standard, also, was said to be owned by communists. The Standard retaliated with a satirical article by “ Dick Whittington”, headed JOURNALIST TELLS ALL : SCOTCH AND SODA AND CERULEAN BLUE , a romp in the form of a diary in which an intrepid reporter books into the Hotel Darwin on a dangerous assignment in a town run by Reds. The gloves were off .
The first edition of the NT News was printed on February 8, l952 under the editorship of Mac Jeffers , a small man who became known as the “ Midget Sub”, a prodigious worker . That first edition ran messages of support for the paper from many political leaders. In what was obviously a poke in the eye for the union run Standard, there were also a considerable number of messages from the leaders of various Australian unions.
An editorial said the NT News would “ fight for North Australia ”. The page 3 lead in the first and many subsequent issues was headed CANBERRA DIARY which was contributed by Don Whitington. This regular feature was later changed to BEHIND THE HEADLINES , probably because to many Territorians Canberra was a dirty word. The first edition carried an advert for the annual literary competition in which Doug Lockwood would judge short stories, one act plays would be perused by Mrs H. Chauvel(wife of the film maker ) and bushman Bill Harney would handle the verse section .
For years most of the photographs run in the paper were used blocks provided by the Packer owned Sydney Telegraph . This explains why there were so many photos of Sydney events in the Darwin paper - a girl posing on Bondi beach had no real relevance to the Top End nor did a bunch of Sydney musicians hamming it up for the camera. NEXT: God’s surprising big picture population plans for Australia and New Zealand .
