At
the age of 68 , Bowditch became
disenchanted with Darwin and said he was going to leave. His romance
with the Territory was over . He
was quoted as saying hating things too much was like loving things too much . If things went wrong, you
could go mad . He wanted to get out before that happened. For a number of years he had been irked by the way the Territory was developing.
Back in l980 he told journalist Doug Lockwood , who had returned to Darwin
after an absence of some
years ,
that Darwin had become a “rip off
place ”. For some , it
was hard to imagine Darwin
without Bowditch . Lockwood
said it was like Malcolm
Fraser saying he would have
no further interest in politics and
Lou Richards announcing he would have nothing more to do
with Aussie Rules. Not long before
Lockwood died he paid a tribute
to Bowditch , saying a certain section of the Darwin
community hated The News when Jim was the editor, but they never failed to buy it. Every issue had something provocative, something controversial , something of interest, something to
read about even if you
did not agree . Bowditch had stuck up
for principles and was a
friend of many people , some
of whom did not deserve his attention.
Bowditch
contacted author Glenville Pike , who was living in Mareeba , North Queensland ,
seeking his opinion about Townsville as a place in which to live .
He told Pike he wanted to get out of Darwin, and had been told the climate was better in North Queensland. Pike honestly told Bowditch that in Townsville he would be unknown
and probably lonely . In Darwin
he was well known.
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Cutting from Sister Kenny Collection James Cook University .
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Nevertheless , Bowditch did leave
Darwin and went to Queensland where he
stayed with some people who had
right wing friends. After some
heated arguments , he moved to Brisbane
and wrote feature articles about prominent Queenslanders, one being Sister Kenny,famous for treating polio sufferers . He lived in boarding houses in which he said there were many residents "doing it tough." Every Sunday he would ring Betty Bowditch and ask her if she wanted him back in Darwin.
Without any
advance notice, his
brother, Peter , arrived
in Darwin from
England on a package flight, wanting to see Jim .
Betty said he looked
just like Jim , and
had flown on to Brisbane where he caught up
with his brother. However,
Jim did not
want to have much to do
with him . He said his brother wore a
coat with trendy leather
elbows which , Jim complained, made him look like a country
squire. He also found
fault with other
clothing , saying it was lairy .
Betty felt sorry for the way his brother
had been treated.
Bowditch resumed contact with the diver Carl
Atkinson who had suffered a stroke and
was living on the Gold Coast. It seems that Bowditch
may have taped Atkinson , attempting
to get his life story for the NT oral history records; unfortunately, due to Atkinson’s stroke induced speech impediment, it was hard to transcribe the tape.
During his
period of restless
roaming away from Darwin ,
Bowditch made contact
with Joanna Willey , a short time after her
mother had died ;
he stayed at her house for
about 10 days. While there , in
what was described as a” mea culpa” frame of mind, he
expressed regret at the
treatment of Keith Willey , saying her father
should have been the editor of the NT News because he was a far more talented reporter.
He indicated he would
belatedly atone for her father’s
treatment in the
book he was writing . ( In the
book , he subsequently briefly described
Willey as one of the best and
the fastest writers in early post-war Darwin ).
Included
in the many subjects he talked
about during his time with Joanna was his mutilation
of the enemy soldier on Tarakan , who he described
as “just a boy ” . In a
deprecating way , he spoke of his war
service which resulted in being awarded
the Distinguished Conduct Medal as having
been nothing special , almost a
“fraud” . He told Joanna
that he had
left Darwin to get
away from drink .
It had been impossible, he said, to
give up drinking
in Darwin because
he knew so
many people and
the pressure was
on him all
the time to join in .
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Lee and Keith Willey and Judith and Peter Simon in Bowditch residence , Fannie Bay.
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A religious
person, Joanna took
Jim, an atheist,
to a Catholic
rosary meeting . At
the time she was
under great stress
due to the
death of her
mother , and was
not sure how
she would respond
at the meeting.
She explained to
Jim the form
of the gathering , which included the
chanting of the
rosary , and he still
insisted on attending . Joanna
said she had
been thankful for
his company. At the meeting
he sat quietly
listening to all
that was said ; she
had introduced him
as a friend
of her parents
in their younger
days when they
were in Darwin .
Bowditch responded with
a moving speech
about Keith and
Lee. NEXT:The interrupted honeymoon .
