Reporter Les Wilson was
enthusiastically following
up an angle in the
Stayput Portuguese saga
when he and NT News
photographer Joe Karlhuber drove
to the Fannie Bay
Hotel at night.
On receiving certain
information , Les drove
back into town
at great speed
in case he
was being followed
by police, overtuned
the office car
and was trapped
by the foot. Karlhuber , who had
been thrown about,
crawled out and
helped free Wilson
who suffered mild
concussion.
Karlhuber
worked under great difficulties
and operated out
of a primitive
darkroom at the News . He
had a refrigerator which was
supposed to be used for
keeping photographic chemicals , but other
people had different
ideas. Even when
he chained the
refrigerator , staff
members would get
into the frig with
bolt cutters and
fill it with grog.
Because of the
frig , drinking sessions
were often held
in the darkroom
and Joe frequently
had to clean
up a mess
of empty cans, bottles
and fag ends. Coca-Cola installed an ice chest in the newspaper and instead of filling it with softdrinks it was used to store beer and rum , and was eventually taken away .
 |
Karlhuber photo taken in News carpark .
|
Karlhuber was covering
a soccer match
when a fight
broke out between
players and supporters . He
took a series
of photos of the
brawlers and then
some players turned and
ran at him.
He stood his
ground and kept
on taking shots
before he was grabbed
and manhandled. The
photographs were run
all over Australia
and Bowditch congratulated
him .
With
May Day coming up and
plans to give
the Federal Government and Immigration
Minister Downer a real
burst with floats
throughout Australia , it was surprisingly announced
the Malays and
the Portuguese could stay
in Australia. It was a
stunning victory for
all concerned in
the stayput battles ,
especially so for the
tenacious editor of
the ramshackle newspaper
in Darwin.
In
his capacity as secretary of the
North Australia Workers' Union, Paddy Carroll , subsequently
issued an appeal for a
voluntary levy to pay for the
two campaigns. Both battles , he said, had run up large legal debts
and other expenses:-
The editor of the Northern Territory News , Mr Jim Bowditch , who led Australia’s newspaper campaign, arranged for loans totalling over
800 pounds ($l600) from his
company with the approval of the chairman of directors, Mr Rupert Murdoch. All this money was spent on
legal and other costs. The generous gesture
from the company carried no interest , but Mr Bowditch was
made clearly responsible to see the money repaid. He personally spent 600 pounds ($1200) during the campaign , and has written this off to
a good cause and experience , but must meet the debt to The News. Jim Bowditch is a wage earner like the rest
of us , and has no chance of finding this money without considerable hardship over a long period. The consequences of failing to repay the money must be fairly obvious and he is now under
pressure to do this. If members of this union could agree to contribute a matter of ten shillings($1)
per head the debt to The News would be paid and the individual freed from a responsibility
that is not really his …
Betty Bowditch said
Jim never had
any trouble raising money
for his crusades. Where it came
from , she did not know - "
he just got it " . One likely
answer , only revealed in the year 2000,
was that Bowditch had a very influential guarantor
for an overdraft with the Commonwealth Bank - Ken
Waters , the prominent
Darwin businessman, former mayor
and father of the NT ALP
secretary , John Waters , QC. It
appears Waters senior
had been left holding part of the
financial baby in the
end .
The Malay Jaffa Madun
became a prominent Darwin
identity . A chef at the Parap Hotel, he took
out the title
of Australia’ s best
steak cook . It would appear
that the thwarted authorities
still kept a close and vindictive watch
on the Malays . Zainal was deported
for petty offences some years
later. One related to being in
possession of waste lead which he recovered
while on a worksite replacing
lead pipes in a bathroom with vinyl tiles.
It was common practice for workers in Darwin to hoard this scrap metal to fund their Christmas
party . The recovery of scrap
metal had not been an issue in the
past. Another offence was
being found on the premises of an illegal gaming house. If playing cards in an illegal gambling
den was a major offence
deserving deportation , then
Darwin should have been
reduced to a ghost town. NEXT : The Murder .
