Parts of the first
feature film made in colour by an
Australian company were shot in the Alice
area by Charles Chauvel in l953. The history
making film was Jedda and starred l5 year old Ngarla Kunoth , born at Utopia
Station in the NT, and Robert Tudawali,
from Melville Island, near Darwin.
The story told of an Aboriginal girl brought up
in a white family and her love
for a tribal Aboriginal. Because of the unusual plot,Chauvel had
difficulty obtaining financial backing for the movie. Bowditch
would later have many dealings
with Tudawali , who appeared in other movies and TV series, only to fall on hard times and die tragically in Darwin.
Kunoth , for a time, worked in The Residency in Alice Springs.
Darwin flocked to see Jedda ,its first world premiere of a film . People lined the street and there were 1000 people inside the Star Theatre ; 20 people even paddled in by canoe from Bathurst Island to see the movie . The noted bushman- author Bill Harney - also dressed up a bit for the event. Some people even wore evening dress, tuxedos and ballerina frocks. Kunoth wore a white ballerina length dress and matching stole. Tudawali, working as a gardener at the time , wore a white suit. In a review of the film , Darwin journalist Bill Tuckey,a slim lad, later one of Australia’s top motoring writers, said Jedda would probably prove to be the best advertisement Australia has had since the discovery of the platypus. In Alice Springs the movie only attracted a small crowd.
Gambling was rife in
Alice just as it was in every other town in the
Territory . A confidential report exposed the
extent of SP and
other gambling activities in Alice .
It named businessmen and public servants involved. It said that there were two SP
shops, one being financed by a
butcher and run by a Department of Works
and Housing clerk who also ran a
book in his office and at
Underdowns’ pub on Saturdays . Another
clerk ran a book in McMahon’s Pub on Saturdays.
According to the report, a high ranking
public servant was the backer of
the clerks , and another public
servant ran an ins and outs game.
Because gambling was so entrenched in the NT way
of life , any
court case involving
gambling convictions was
avidly read. A gambling
survey conducted by
Bowditch found that most people in Alice favoured the establishment
of legal betting shops and
most agreed that gambling
was common in the NT.
The Centralian Advocate ran several gambling
reports from Darwin ,
one headed 15 DARWIN GAMBLING DENS RAIDED .
During l953 the Advocate carried
an amusing report about how some people
celebrated Easter in Darwin . Under the
heading POLICE POUNCE ON DARWIN
GAMBLING it told of
raids on three premises which resulted in more than 400 pounds ($800) in fines and
forfeitures. John Joseph
Burns was fined for running
a “heads and tails” game in a
room adjacent to Paspaley’s Billiard Saloon. Michael Paspaley
was fined five pound ($10) for permitting his premises to be used for gaming. Defence lawyer John Lyons
said it was only the
second time the game had been played in
five or six years. The game had been
staged , he said , at
the request of a number of people as a way of
celebrating Easter. The
defendant, Mick Paspaley , later changed his name to Paspalis to
overcome confusion with his brother Nick
who was in the pearling industry . Mick
Paspalis became the richest man in Darwin
and could even arrange
tickets to Buckingham Palace
garden parties. He would have many dealings with Bowditch
in coming years .
Just when Alice Springs got
its first public library in l953, in the old Gum Tree Cafe
in Todd Street, a visiting American
writer warned that television had reduced
book reading in his
country. And an Alice resident
who had recently been overseas said that in England people there were also mesmerized
by
television and sat in darkened
rooms without engaging in normal
conversation. Bowditch joined the library , writing in one of his
columns that he had taken out Peg’s Paper , a magazine for women
, and made an unclear remark
about another publication
called the News. This might have been a
reference to the NT News .
Because so many good news
stories broke in Alice , Jim did a lot
of stringing for southern newspapers and also
supplied stories to the ABC in Darwin. The Melbourne Herald representative in Darwin, Doug Lockwood,often rang and called on him when he was in town. Lockwood made outback
tours in his car which bore the low early registration number 300 . During these expeditions ,
frequently accompanied by a
photographer sent from south , he gathered
superb material , much of which
appeared in articles and books .
NEXT : Darwin beckons .
