CARDIAC SURGEON SHORT

Northern Territory Cardiac Services is a surgeon"short." Patients with appointments to see Dr Georgy Chacko are being contacted and told that he left recently for Adelaide . It is hoped to have a replacement from England in June . Patients who have had their appointments suddenly cancelled without notice will probably receive a left over Easter Egg from Health Minister Kon Vatskalis .(See Brer Rabbit in briar patch dispute below .)

ATTRACTED TO A TOWN CALLED ALICE . Biography of NT's crusading editor, " Big Jim " Bowditch, by Peter Simon ,#15.

Moreton Island lighthouse enabled Bowditch to unwind.
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At long last , Jim Bowditch was discharged from the Army on April 24, 1946 , out of uniform and living in Melbourne . Politics became one of his new interests . For a time he was employed in the Repatriation Department as a clerk , but found it a soul destroying job with lurks being worked all over the place. He underwent a psychiatric examination and some friends advised him beforehand that if he put on a bit of an act he could get a pension. Apparently he was told , as if he did not already know , that he appeared to have a highly development antipathy to authority.

He made contact with some people in the Australian Labor Party and through them met Prime Minister Ben Chifley and John Dedman , Minister for Post-War Reconstruction .

While staying in a boarding house he met and became interested in another resident , redheaded Iris Nellie Neal Hargreaves, keen on ballet , daughter of a colonel . According to Bowditch, she had rowed with her mother and moved into the boarding house. She and Jim went out together and eventually married .

To escape the boredom of the Repatriation Department Jim went to Brisbane where he stayed in a boarding house and scanned the situations vacant looking for employment . The ex- commando then went from door to door selling Safe Way iron stands for 4/6 each , his profit being a shilling on each one . In one day alone he sold 32 iron stands . Sales were helped by publicity about several house fires started by hot irons.

Bowditch practised with an iron and a stand until he could just toss an iron from any angle and it fell into place on the stand. It was a bit like a gun fighter becoming dexterous with his shooting iron . So proficient was he at selling iron stands that the slick operator in charge of the distribution of the stands wanted him to teach other salesmen. Hearing that Burns Philp had a warehouse full of faulty floor mops that were being dumped, Bowditch went and inspected them. He discovered that due to a manufacturing fault there was not enough wire holding the mop in place , but with a bit of twisting they could be fixed. So he became the proud yet anxious owner of a large quantity of defective mops which he also offered from door to door for a substantial profit . While on the sales beat he wore his old Army boots which he found handy for kicking dogs which rushed out at him . One of his slick sales practises was to stand admiring some flower or shrub as the lady of the house opened the door. Willing to try his hand at anything , he also sold insurance and toilet chemicals.

One day Bowditch met an old Army buddy in Brisbane and they headed for a pub . Later they caught a tram to go to another hotel . His friend suddenly jumped from the tram , sprinted across to a man who was standing on the footpath and king hit him. When the man fell to the ground ,he was kicked. Then Jim’s friend ran back to the tram . When Bowditch asked him what had prompted the attack , he was told the victim had been a sadistic guard in a military prison and Jim’s friend had promised to get even with him if they ever met again in civilian life.

A position was advertised for a lighthouse keeper who could operate a radio , do morse code and read ships ’ flags on (Cape) Moreton Island, off Brisbane . Bowditch made a successful application . Iris came up from Melbourne and joined him on the island . Life on the three-man station helped Bowditch to unwind and he did much reading. During that time he developed an urge to write something but did not do so. Food supplies were received every 17 days . One of the lightkeepers used to drink rum neat saying it had cured a bad ulcer . During his time on the island Bowditch began writing letters to the ALP . Iris became bored with the isolation and they returned to Melbourne .

An ASIO basic report compiled on Bowditch in 1950 said that after the war he had worked as a salesman on his own behalf and then for C. Deakin and Co, Brisbane ,until November 1947 when he was engaged as a clerk for the Repatriation Commission , Melbourne . From there, the report, making no mention of his time as a lighthouse keeper , said he had transferred to the Department of Works and Housing.

According to Bowditch , Iris did not know much about politics and her parents were “ Tories”. Bowditch resumed contact with Labor people in Melbourne and was personally told by Minister Dedman that the government was planning a soldier settlement in Central Australia .

This information prompted Bowditch to take an animal husbandry correspondence course to achieve the long held desire to become a farmer. Through his father-in-law’s influence, he was able to obtain a job as paymaster in the Alice Springs office of the Works and Housing Department . The idea behind going to Alice was for Bowditch to get in on the ground floor of the proposed soldier settlement scheme and have a cattle station of his own. As originally outlined to him , the soldier settlement scheme would have involved spending a total of 10, 000 pound ($20,000) on properties of 500 square miles in size on which there would be an army hut . Time would show that he was not destined to be a cowpuncher. In any case , the soldier settler scheme for Central Australia did not eventuate. NEXT: Alice Springs -early impressions and characters.

DEMARCATION DISPUTE AT DARWIN HOSPITAL OVER RABBIT EXPLOSION

The angry Easter Bunny has lodged a complaint with Fair Work Australia that NT Health Minister Kon Vatskalis repeatedly muscles in on his territory. Before the Easter Bunny got a chance to visit Royal Darwin Hospital to spread goodwill and cheer, Minister Vatskalis was seen hopping about the wards in front of a TV camera handing out eggs to startled children , warned never to take lollies from strange men, and hallucinating adult hip replacement patients . By the time the dear old Easter Bunny arrived some of the children ha d spewed over the bedclothes and nurses because they ate too many chocolate eggs, including the tinfoil wrapping , passed out by Vatskalis. Easter Bunny vowed he would set rabbit traps throughout RDH next Easter in the hope that the minister would put his foot in it . A spokesman for Fair Work Australia said it would take three years to investigate and report by which time the minister could be moonlighting as Santa and the Easter Bunny may well be part of a felt hat .

WARNING FOR US MARINES IN DARWIN

Extending the hand of friendship to the unsuspecting US Marines who have lobbed in town, Little Darwin advises them not to follow the advice in this WW11 Coca- Cola advert from the popular Australian magazine, MAN, which claimed American and Australian soldiers got on famously drinking the beverage . And whatever you do , please do not say WACKO, DIGGER ! to any locals, be they in uniform or sporting T-shirt , stubbies and thongs , as it could spark an unintended international incident . Over the coming months Little Darwin will feature old theatre programmes and other pieces of ephemera from our kitbag with an American touch .

RUBBISH WARRIOR BOOKED

LONDON : There are strong rumours in the book trade that Darwin’s "Rubbish Warrior", Trevor Jenkins, has been hired to redesign the front cover of a reprint of William Faulkner’s controversial 1929 novel THE SOUND AND THE FURY. As seen above in this Penguin Modern Classic , the front cover is nowhere as artistic as the hundreds of creative sculptures Jenkins makes just about every day with rubbish picked up on footbaths and verges. The above cover is a detail from The Scarecrow by Andrew Wyeth in the National Collection of Fine Arts,Washington. In Darwin, it has been described by one dismissive Long Grass art critic, residing at Mindil Beach in a make believe attic , as consisting of an old Bunnings garden stake to which is attached a crooked stick or two used by Lady Chatterley’s lazy gardener, with shredded pieces of toilet paper being blown away by the knock 'em down winds. No Aussie bird would be frightened off by such a feeble looking scarecrow, he sniffed , using his beret to swat mosquitoes .

GREAT EXPECTORATIONS IN PARLIAMENT

The 200th anniversary of the birth of novelist Charles Dickens was unexpectedly marked during last week’s sittings of the NT Legislative Assembly. Literary inclined Member for Port Darwin, John Elferink, who has quoted Little Darwin in his newsletters, said the Leader of Government Business, Dr Chris Burns, destined to become another Ghost of Christmases Past after the next election, reminded him of not one but two Dickensian characters, Uriah Heap and Ebenezer Scrooge

The Elf painted several vivid images of Burns shuffling about his office, Scrooge-like , a weakly burning candle holder to warm himself against airconditioning , glasses perched on his nose, pulling the wings off flies.

This lyrical comment was prompted by the latest hatchet job done by Dr Burns on the Member for Macdonnell, Alison Anderson. Knowing Ms. Anderson , she could handle Jack the Ripper without any trouble, so Dr Burns had better be careful should he ever wander at large on foggy nights in olde Darwin town. His attacks , said Elferink, were like that of a stalker. Warming to the Dickensian scene , he said "this Ebenezer Scrooge" shuffled about in slippers and nightgown in "this cobweb infected world."

Chas. Dickens would undoubtedly have been impressed by the Honourable Member’s use of powerful and pungent English expressions when flaying Dr Burns with tongue and birch : "old and bitter, twisted"... " a shambolic wreckage"... "strychnine laced criticism"... "jumping at spectres "... There was also the colourful " a vendetta which is entrenched in a black and withered heart"- the kind of language you expect in Harry Potter adventures. Phew ! Jilted Miss Haversham would probably have a touch of the vapours on reading the daily Hansard covering this exchange and collapse on the cobweb festooned wedding breakfast setting , enabling Pip to elope with a comely serving wench .

VITAL ANDREW PEACOCK DECISION ALLOWED LAST FLIGHT TO DARWIN

(Another episode in THE UNQUIET AUSTRALIAN series about the action packed life of Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith- humanitarian, anti-war campaigner, true democrat, supporter of many causes , dogged campaigner, chorister who refused to be silenced . The series derives its name from the fact that Wesley-Smith and his wife, Jan-Marie, flew into Viet Nam during the war and stayed in Saigon’s Hotel Continental in which author Graham Greene wrote THE UNQUIET AMERICAN .)

Fearing that the Indonesians were hell-bent on invading East Timor ,Wesley Smith on November 25, 1975 sent a telegram to the interim Foreign Affairs Minister, Andrew Peacock : DEMAND EFFECTIVE ACTION TO PREVENT INDONESIAN INVASION EAST TIMOR. Receiving no reply, he fired off another telegram , below, on December 2.

The telegram was unearthed by former top Australian intelligence officer and author , Dr Clinton Fernandes, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Studies , School of Humantities, University of NSW Australian Defence Force Academy , and recently posted on the website run by one of Rob’s twin brothers , musician Martin Wesley-Smith, also an activist . It carried the caption: Indonesia invaded a few days later just after US President Gerald Ford and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had flown out of Indonesian air-space. Note the scribbled "No action required". If Australia had taken action, perhaps the disastrous - from most points of view - Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor could have been averted.

The telegrams are proof of Rob Wesley-Smith’s involvement in the struggle for freedom for the beleaguered country from early days, never waining over 24 years , his concern and help for the nation continuing to the present day.

Peacock’s approval for the flight is said to have been given against advice from Foreign Affairs and that of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta . That last flight from Dili to Darwin enabled Jose Ramos-Horta , Roger Lobato and Mari Alkatiri to escape and represent East Timor internationally. The importance of this gesture cannot be underestimated . If Ramos- Horta had not escaped to use his diplomatic skills in the UN the East Timor cause, incredibly , could have been lost and the country could still be under the jackboots of the Indonesians , Australia sharing in the plunder of the oil deposits .

Rob Wesley- Smith says Andrew Peacock must be be commended for enabling that flight to take place as the Indonesian forces were bearing down on Dili. Aptly named LAST FLIGHT OUT OF DILI-Memoirs of an Accidental Activist in the Triumph of East Timor, Pluto Press, Australia, 2005, author David Scott ,OA, humanitarian aid worker , detailed his dealings with Peacock during that tense invasion period . While Peacock has been derided over the years, that vital decision to allow the Fretilin leaders to fly from Dili to Darwin required guts , and lots of it .

The Cold War mentality with its associated domino theory belief was in play at the time and giant western corporations had carved up Indonesia . A warning was projected by various sources that a tiny , independent, left- leaning republic next to Indonesia and Australia could result in a "communist" base from which unrest could be spread throughout the region.

[While in Darwin in connection with the film Balibo, based on Jill Jolliffe’s book, Cover-Up, Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia , who played the starring part of reporter Roger East , reflected on the fact that the invasion had been justified, in some quarters , as denying Chinese a foothold in the region. Now, he said, everybody was there - China, Russian , representatives of many other countries and companies. All, it seems, keen to share in the oil revenues.]

Once the invasion took place, Rob Wesley-Smith and others in Darwin, including the internationally known freelance photographer ,Penny Tweedie , voiced outrage, banded together and formed an action group.. On December 10,1975, in a publication, THE NEW DARWIN, edited by John Ball and Peter Hancock, they ran a page about the grim East Timor situation which included Roger's East's last dispatch . Tweedie had been to East Timor on assignment before the Balibo Five were killed .

From a secret location in Darwin's rural area, Wesley-Smith speaks to East Timor on the clandestine Radio Maubere ; with him is Laurentino Pires , whose daughter recently contested the first round of the presidential elections in Timor- Leste . ( Photo by Brian Manning ) . NEXT : Taking on the Australian government and what was the sniper on the roof doing in Darwin ?