An important moment in the annals of Australian journalism is captured here - crusading editor ,the late James Frederick Bowditch, a war hero and Walkley Award winner, is seen pressing his distinctive nose into wet concrete in l980 at Tyalgum, northern NSW. He had been present when a friend , Peter Hood, a former Darwin fireman , assisted by a nearby farmer with no fingers , put down the slab for what was intended to be a workshed , but later became the house . It was thirsty work for all concerned , they all imbibed , and at some stage it was suggested Bowditch should leave something to permanently commemorate the occasion. Just as Hollywood film stars leave their mark at Graumans Chinese Theatre , usually a handprint , Big Jim Bowditch applied his beak. It appears there may have been a problem getting Jim’s nose to make an impression in concrete. Recalling the event this week , Hood said a handkerchief had been place on the fast drying wet concrete and Jim , assisted by Peter , several times heartily pushing on the back of his skull, achieved success.
During his lifetime the Bowditch nose attracted many blows and comments- as far away as the jungles of South East Asia. A former British Army boxing champion, his father insisted he take up fisticuffs and had him matched against older , more skilled boys to give him inner strength and courage. Soon after arriving in Australia , Bowditch made representations to a police sergeant on behalf of unemployed men on sustenance and was punched in the mouth by the officer. A commando during WW11, he had further punch ups with civil and military police , and was involved in a court case in which it was claimed he assaulted an American soldier with a brick. During dangerous behind the lines operations against the Japanese in Borneo ,for which he was decorated, his comrades renamed Proboscis Monkeys, below, Bowditch Monkeys, a gross exaggeration ; villagers joined in the fun and pointed at the monkeys and Jim’s nose .
After the war, Bowditch became editor of the Centralian Advocate, Alice Springs, and the Northern Territory News in Darwin . In all fairness, it must be said it really was not a huge nose, a bit sharpish, perhaps , said to have been like his mother’s . After a road accident in Darwin his battered nose was put in a kind of mask which made him look like Scaramouche , causing an outbreak of laughter when he walked into pubs .
After Cyclone Tracy, famous Sydney newspaper caricaturist , Tony Rafty , a war correspondent who became a close friend of President Soekarno during the fight for Indonesia’s freedom, asked after his mate Jim Bowditch . Rafty , a keen golfer, made a drawing which showed Bowditch lining up a golfball with his NOSE at the 19th hole.
While Bowditch was at Peter Hood’s leafy retreat, in the Mount Warning caldera , a smelly ,stray billy goat , with the nasty habit of urinating on people, refused to budge from the driveway. Bowditch was photographed below wrestling with the obstinate animal, no doubt fearful that he might get a spray.
With the passage of time and expansion of the house, the Bowditch indentation was filled in and covered with lino . Pete did, however , scratch a message for future archeologists so that they could excavate the site and find the famous conk .
Another photograph , above , shows Hood (left) and Bowditch hamming it up in Darwin before Pete donned a white sports coat, with a pink carnation in the lapel, and put on one thong only so that he looked a bit odd as he shuffled along , bearing a placard saying that a certain firm of lawyers SUX. It was a protest over a dodgy land deal that cost him money . He stood outside the front of the legal firm , and they closed their blinds . Bowditch watched over him so that he was not lumbered by police. His protest got a run in two papers , but the sign was censored.
After several representations by this writer and journalist , author Barbara James , Darwin finally named a street after Jim , a revered and unique journalist . Peter Hood, who says he once honeymooned on Magnetic Island living off nuts and berries in the bush , makes trips to the Territory from time to time , likes working with wood and uses it to make fine furniture and sculptures. A figure he carved for the widow of Jim Bowditch, Betty, sits at the entrance to the Darwin house in which she lives . It has become known as Black Betty , the popular song of the same name played at a large birthday party for Betty last year, which Peter attended , along with well wishers from the NT, South Australia, Sydney and New York .
