VARIATION ON A CROCODILE STORY

A Little Darwin correspondent keen on fishing sent this pic of a 7ft long , 111 pound alligator gar caught in a Texas river. The silver haired gent is Jeremy Wade, host of River Monsters, on the Animal World.

Imagine what would happen if Territory barramundi mutated into a goliath tigerfish, (above), related to the piranha , from the Congo River, central Africa. The source for these photos is animal.discovery.com which contains further spectacular shots of fish that will blow your tiny little mind and probably make you scared to put your toe in the water.

PARLIAMENT HOUSE FLASHBACK

While some strongly feel this year is the actual centenary of Canberra, March 12 of next year is the official date marking the laying of three foundation stones for the new bush capital at a ceremony over which Prime Minister Andrew Fisher officiated. At that event, held on Kurrajong Hill, now Capital Hill, were the Governor-General, Lord Denman and Lady Denman, she proclaiming the capital would be called Canberra. The colourful Minister for Home Affairs - King O'Malley- was also involved in the ceremony.

The award winning plan for Canberra , designed by American Walter Burley Griffin, with striking water colour perspectives supplied by his wife , Marion Mahony , one of the first licensed female architects in the world, was accepted in 1912, thus regarded by many as the real birth of the capital.

To mark the looming major event , Little Darwin searched through its collection of unusual ephemera and came up with the above rarity . It is a notice from THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD announcing the resumption of the competition to select the architect for Parliament House in the new capital city of Canberra, signed by Walter Burley Griffin, Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction .

The competition, which had opened in June 1914 , had been suspended in September of that year owing to the war. Reopened in 1916, it was again put aside because of the war . The above notice says the competition was open to applicants from friendly countries ( enemy subjects not eligible ). The date for receiving drawings had been extended to April 30, 1917, at London and Melbourne.

Details could be obtained from the High Commissioner for Australia , London, the Works’ Departments of British Dominions, the British Embassies at Madrid, Paris, Rome, Petrograd, Stockholm and Washington. Outline sketch designs only were needed , there being eight prizes aggregating 6000 pounds ($12,000). An international jury of architects would judge the entries- George T. Poole, of Australia; Sir John Burnet, Great Britain; Victor Laloux , France; Louis H. Sullivan, USA, and Eliel Saarinen, Russia. As it turned out, the Commonwealth Chief Architect, John Smith Murdoch, a dour Scot , said not to have been overly keen on the concept of Canberra as the national capital,who fell out with W.B. Griffin, was charged with designing and constructing what was supposed to be a provisional parliament house , occupied from 1927 to 1988.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF JOURNALISM

The hottest thing in journalism more than 100 years ago.

Lamentations over the ruthless slash and burn tactics in the newspaper industry could become the biggest wake in recorded history. The demise of the auriferous period of reporting was recently discussed with deep emotion and animation by a variety of veteran media hands on two occasions in Darwin .

At the first post mortem - on the Balcony Bar - this gnarled scribbler , who began his newspaper career in Sydney in the 1950s, listened to verbal sobbing -as well as criticism of modern media - as he sipped, believe it or not, several mugs of lemon squash. On visits back to Darwin were journalist Kim Lockwood , from Melbourne, and ace photographers, Mike Jensen , and Barry LeLievre , from Canberra , all three having spent years in Darwin.

When Jensen, a Dane, a freelancer in Europe before coming to Oz , worked for the Australian News and Information Bureau , Darwin, I used to go through his waste paper basket like a scavenger , salvaging pix he discarded because he regarded them as not being first class . His fabulous views of the outback , some aerial shots, were works of art .

LeLievre , also of ANIB , worked with several well known journalists over the years . Lugging a heavy camera bag may have led to him having a hip replacement . Now he is a top gun cameraman at the National Gallery , Canberra . He took several shots of us hamming it up in between libations as we discussed , in tabloid terms , the shock , horror media massacre.

Lockwood conjured up a fine example of the proclaimed gilded era of journalism when he told how he and several other ex newspaper men meet regularly in Melbourne and , over liquid refreshments , discuss the state of the media world. One of that group , who had scaled the heights in the newspaper game , said an incredible sense of achievement- back in the hot metal days- had been pulling together all the human and mechanical ingredients needed to meet the deadline for a weekend paper with the Melbourne football results flowing in .

This anecdote reminded me of the time when I was a cadet reporter on the Sydney Sun in the 1950s doing a spell as the finance pages stone sub editor on the factory floor in the hot metal days. It was a smokey , Dickensian scene , with scores of clanking linotype machines, men shouting , pneumatic tubes disgorging copy and corrected galley proofs, the finance pages having to be ready on time , no matter what, to be pushed away and plated up. There seemed to be an orgasmic movement beneath your feet when the presses began to roll ; you felt you had played a part in making the ugly building shake - even though you were a pimply, small cog.

The prolific American writer , Paul Gallico, wrote a short story , the name of which I cannot recall, which told of the feeling of triumph and achievement in getting newspaper presses running . While drinking with a British journalist in New Zealand , nearly 50 years ago, he mentioned that same Paul Gallico story, saying it had greatly impressed him and summed up the meaning of being a journalist, the sense of achievement at regularly contributing to the birth of a new edition.

The second post mortem was actually a birthday party for a person who could write several books about the golden age of journalism in the NT- Betty Bowditch, wife of the late James Frederick Bowditch , crusading editor of the Centralian Advocate and the NT News. Her youngest daughter, Sharon, a journalist , came from New York , where her husband , Col Allan , runs the New York Post .With her was daughter Kate J Allan - the bare initial J in honour of two great newspaper men , her grandfather Jim Bowditch and the irrepressible Jim "Flasher " Oram .

Other well wishers who attended the party at Virginia came from South Australia, Alice Springs and included some media people from Sydney, one still hurt at having recently been made redundant after years in the newspaper game. It was only natural that notes and names were compared, the global state of the media discussed. The peccadilloes and peculiarities of paper people past and present provided a memorable evening of nostalgia and updating . It was a golden night for this old scribe. Alas, the hot metal days have long since melted away - but the memories continue to burn . The cool, sterile era of production which replaced the great hot metal period is in a sad state of disarray- and other technological developments within the next 18 months will further impact on struggling newspapers and television .

STOP PRESS: Emails from several newspapermen from yesteryear have specifically referred to the passing of the golden age. One, who requires oxygen because of smoking 40 cigarettes a day, is writing his memoirs and occasionally fires off a letter to the editor. Another, who spent time in the Territory, has written books and numerous magazines articles , is also trying to get publishers interested in various proposals- and kindly helps out in his son's vineyard and conference resort in NZ, sampling the product .

POLLUTING PARADISE - By Peter Simon

Returning from Lord Howe fishing trip , writer in water at bow.

Lord Howe Island, population about 350, 600kms off Sydney , advertised as a pristine wonderland , even as the most beautiful island in the Pacific, is under threat by mankind’s pollution of the globe . A recent TV report showed disturbing footage of plastic washed up on the island , ending up in the intestines of birdlife , reducing the number of mutton birds in particular. I visited Lord Howe nearly 60 years ago , taking off from Sydney’s Rose Bay aboard a Sandringham flying boat , carrying 42 passengers , which landed in the lagoon , set against the spectacular cloud-capped twin peaks of Mount Gower and Mount Lidgbird, below.

There are fond memories and photographs of that trip- despite being violently ill during a fishing trip in view of Ball’s Pyramid , rising 552metres, said to be the world’s tallest monolith rising out of water , some 23kms south . I have a souvenir–a scar on my left leg due to stabbing myself with a penknife while making a hula skirt from a palm frond for a staff member at Kirby’s Pine Trees guesthouse for a fancy dress party . There were hardly any vehicles on the island, bicycles being the main form of transport.

As you cycled or trekked about Lord Howe there were several places where you could drop in for locally made fruit salad, which included guavas that grew in clumps . I slept in the boathouse to the left of the ramp in the above photograph on the lagoon shore , with a stirring view of the mountains, Rabbit Island , in the clear lagoon, the gleaming sands, the soothing waters caressing the shore at night. Robinson Crusoe never had it so good . Because my maiden aunt was employed as a hostess at the guest house I was given special privileges , made doubly welcome , introduced to island residents . Birdlife was abundant , and over at the ocean beach side of the island , where the waves pounded in , cowries and other interesting shells were found in the swirling waters.

A treasured find was a gleaming paper nautilus . The arrival and departure of the flying boat was a major event, especially watching the lumbering plane bounce across the lagoon. The disappearance in 1953 of an islander , Miss Kathleen Kimber, 40, connected to the Seppelt wine family of South Australia is an unsolved mystery. Her clothes were found at the top of a cliff.

There is a Darwin pioneering aviation link with Lord Howe. The daring British adventurer , Francis Chichester, who in 1929 unsuccessfuly attempted to break Bert Hinkler’s record from England to Darwin, in his Gypsy Moth , Madame Elijah, later landed his float attached plane in the lagoon in 1931 on a flight from NZ to Sydney via Norfolk Island and Lord Howe. Almost lost, in a squall, he brought the plane down , totally exhausted. The next morning , to his dismay, the plane was found to be upside down in the water. He spent nine weeks there dismantling the plane, making repairs, rebuilding. He then took off for Sydney.

In prehistoric days a large horned turtle lived on the island. Rats introduced from wrecked vessels proliferated and caused environmental damage to wildlife and the palm seed industry. They are still a problem, recently mentioned on the ABC’s Science Show. Plastic is being washed in from far and wide–Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. The Lord Howe Museum displays a Shearwater made out of a wide variety of plastic found on the beaches which includes milk and soft drink tops , bottles, glowing pieces off swordfish lines , balloon ties, cigarette tips ,etc. The Shearwater’s eye is the corner of a $10 note. A staggering 264 pieces of plastic were found in the intestine of a mutton bird , representing 15 per cent of its body weight.

The plastics scourge is a global problem. Last year Taiwan’s biggest ever food scare involved the discovery in sports and soft drinks of dangerous levels of industrial plasticisers, normally used to make a wide range of goods, including shoes and flexible hose pipes. China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the Philippines withdrew Taiwanese produce from supermarkets.The fear of polluted foodstuffs is such that Chinese tourists in New Zealand have been stocking up on baby formula . On SBS , the current Simon Reeve Tv series on the Indian Ocean has revealed the torrent of plastic being washed up on beaches in Kenya , destitute locals turning flip flops into toys and art , but the bulk of plastic just piling up on the sand . At Bali, now almost a suburb of Darwin, it has a growing problem of stream pollution and rubbish disposal which does not get a mention in the tourist brochures .

My aunt Gwen and maid Burniece ; handyman Tex with fish.

THE BROWN DERBY

*After handing out bouquets and brickbats in Broome, marauding Bulldust Diary columnist /illustrator, Peter Burleigh , becomes slap happy in Derby , where fly in fly out has another meaning

The funniest thing about Derby is a sign on its outskirts:
“LET ME DO YOUR DISHES.
DERBY ANTENNA & AERIAL SERVICE.”

Things go downhill after that, although not literally. The place is flatter than a pancake. In fact, Derby almost isn’t there at all. It’s built in a tidal salt pan and its scattering of buildings is the same colour as its sandy marsh surroundings. The mud covers a little bit more of it every day. The tide and the sand flies are a key feature of its reputation. I’ll bet it’s no less miserable today as the day it was founded in 1883. And there are the mosquitoes which stand over the sandflies, mosquitoes at least as big as their night-fighter counterpart of World War Two. Attempt to slap one down and it’ll fly into your ear and eat your brain. The town’s crumbling at the edges but remains an operating port, exporting lead and zinc ore. Derby’s van park – yet another Gateway to the Kimberley - is so crowded even sardines would get claustrophobia.

The town’s highlight is the Pier restaurant at the end of the causeway at the far edge of the sand flats near the jetty. Its small terrace is perfectly located so you stare drop-jawed into the crimson sunset with a chilled Margaret River Chardonnay in hand. Under the veranda a sprinkler system sprays Citronella-and-water mixture through fine nozzles in an attempt to suppress the biting insects. The cool mist is delightful but repels nothing. The tastier individuals among us, your correspondent included, proudly display their red bites for days afterward. The compensation for being the mosquitoes’ meal is a big slab of super-fresh grilled Barramundi (and chips) for $22. The insects are included in the price. It’s still not a sufficient incentive to stay a second night.

After dinner we overhear an argument amongst the fishermen on the pier. A Maori (or Samoan, I couldn’t tell) says “Two hundred years ago I’d be eating you.”

Next morning at Nita’s Cafe in the main street, surrounded by thistles and garbage, we spot a funeral notice taped to the wall. A Smoking Ceremony is to be held for a local Aboriginal woman. A footnote reads “The family requests that people attend sober.”

TRUTH WILL OUT IN DARWIN

Good to see the emergence of Darwin Truth and even more interesting to note the response of the NT News , probably tongue in cheek, calling it “our opposition.” This writer has long toyed with the idea of bringing out another blog called DARWIN TRUTH , but senile decay, arthritis of the digits , threat of divorce and a desire to avoid plummeting from the twig prevented such a venture . From time to time Little Darwin has cited the now online Magnetic Times produced on Magnetic Island, off Townsville, by a small group of enlightened individuals, as a shining example for a similar venture in Darwin. Originally a conventional newspaper printed on a Murdoch owned press, Magnetic Times went into cyberspace before Murdoch’s North Queensland papers, won awards , took on the Labor dominated Townsville City Council over various island and national environmental issues , the council almost wiped out at election. Magnetic Times diversified into short films- CARBON CUTS - using island residents, even a dog, in well acted and scripted movies with a message. Magnetic Times is now available on Facebook . “ Don’t tell me Darwin is going to tell the truth! Dr John Tomlinson commented (see below ). The truth is that the Darwin media setup badly needs new players to present the truth about many issues crying out to be told .

CAMPAIGNING FOR THE OPPRESSED

Dr Tomlinson facetiously helping police with investigations.

In the annals of Northern Territory activism , the name of Dr John Tomlinson looms large. His relentless pursuit of social justice for the many, his drive to reform government welfare departments , strong opposition to uranium mining and his act of returning an Aboriginal girl, lodged with European foster parents in Darwin, to her family in Arnhem Land made him nigh on notorious . At one stage , it is said , he was the second person after Frank Hardy, author of the controversial Power Without Glory , charged with criminal defamation ; there was further uproar when it was claimed he was teaching what amounted to sabotage at the Darwin Community College and he used photographs of himself struggling with arresting police on the front cover of a two -in -one book which severely criticised Australia’s social welfare system, especially as applied in the Territory.

On top of these monumental rows , he managed to wet numerous fishing lines and take a keen interest in the welfare of Territory fishing grounds and the environment in general. He delighted in returning from fishing trips and alerting Darwin port authorities over the radio that his fishing smack , provocatively named Yellow Peril, was about to enter Australian waters.

From Queensland , he had worked as a clerk and then a cadet scientist with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock, studying at night school for his matriculation. At the University of Queensland , he joined and subsequently led the Left wing Student Action and was involved in the Aboriginal Land Rights struggle with Aboriginal poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( Kath Walker).

After marrying high school teacher , Clare Priest, he graduated in Social Work in 1964 and worked with the Commonwealth Department of Social Services for nine months before transferring to the Welfare Branch in Darwin, which controlled the lives of Territory Aboriginals. Tomlinson , in supplied biographical notes, said he was constantly " in strife " with the hierarchy at the branch , headed by Harry Christian Giese –nicknamed “Do it my way” by John . Babe Damaso, an Aboriginal welfare officer , took the "cocky Tomlinson" under his wing and attempted to instil in him a sense of humility and patience . Babe also taught him most of what he knows about fishing in the Top End.

In 1967 , Tomlinson published his first book of poems REFLECTIONS OF A FOOL , printed by Coleman Printers ,Smith Street. He called the venture Wobbly Press as his writings were in line with the International Workers of the World- the Wobblies. Brian Manning ran off the text on a roneo machine atop a shaky desk in the Waterside Workers’ Union office on Stokes Hill Wharf.

Tomlinson returned to Social Services , Brisbane, in 1968 and through part-time study completed an undergraduate Arts degree . The next year he undertook an Honours degree in Anthropology and Sociology. In 1970 he was granted a two year full-time Commonwealth Public Service Post Graduate Scholarship to undertake a Masters in Social Work study , working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens of South Brisbane. His study showed that a community work approach, which listened carefully to what Indigenous people wanted, allowed the majority of the community to achieve things that individualised counselling could not provide.

This , he says , is a lesson that the current Federal Government and/or Opposition would do well to heed if they were really interested in using evidenced-based social policy. In 1973, he returned to the Welfare Branch in Darwin as a grade 2 social worker, acting grade 3, with responsibility for the Top End of the NT. His friend, Colin Clague, (featured in the SBS documentary When Colin Met Joyce) had responsibility for the southern half of the Territory.

Shortly after returning to Darwin, whilst living in a house adjoining Essington House remand and detention centre on McMillans Road , he heard screaming emanating from the building . He raced across and insisted that he talk to the young girl who had screamed. He was taken to her cell and there was silence. The staff wanted him to leave saying ,“You see all is well now”. He insisted he speak to the girl. When the door was opened the thin, young Aboriginal woman was semi-conscious hanging from a sheet. She recovered.

Things went well for Tomlinson in the first eight months of 1973; Ray McHenry , the new head of the department, was a breath of fresh air- until the matter of Tomlinson returning the young Aboriginal girl to her father created an almighty rumpus which reverberated around the world . She had been fostered with a white family after a difficult birth. Her brother had also been fostered by the same family, again after a difficult birth ,but he had been returned to his natural parents at the age of four . She was seven and the foster parents did not want her to return. With the help of Bill Ryan, the Director of North Australian Legal Aid, she and her father returned to a remote Maningrida outstation. After a public service inquiry, Tomlinson was demoted to social worker class 1. Les MacFarlane, Speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly, telegrammed the department saying, "Can’t you demote Tomlinson one more grade."

This major incident led to the first social work strike in Australia, with all but one of the branch’s social workers striking for three weeks in support of Tomlinson’s returning the girl to her natural parents. The return gave impetus to other social workers around Australia who were attempting to keep Aboriginal children in their own communities.

The NT Council for Civil Liberties

After this, Tomlinson was not given an office nor was he given any duties. In order to fill in the day he caught up on all the social science reading that he had put aside during the previous year. That done, he set out to research the emergency income support policies and practices of the branch and commented critically upon policy and activities in letters to the Minister and the Prime Minister. Eventually senior people in the branch decided he might be less of a problem if he was put to work.

In 1974, Robert Wesley-Smith, Jan Tokarcyz, Clare and John Tomlinson, Maggie Kent and others called a public meeting to set up the NT Council of Civil Liberties. That meeting was " gate-crashed" by what he described as " 200 police" who won most of the motions and who then stacked the interim council with police and magistrates. [ This seems an extraordinary figure, as if Public Enemy Number 1 was on the premises .] The only motion which the originators of the plan for a Council of Civil Liberties succeeded in getting passed was to set the time, date and place for the next meeting, three months hence.

Cyclone Tracy intervened. Tomlinson was put in charge of issuing Emergency Purchase Orders for petrol and supplies for people who had lost houses and those who were evacuating. When the Navy relief vessels arrived, the head of one of the trucking companies with a contract to pick things up from the wharves and take them to emergency centres came in and asked for a voucher to supply all his trucks. Tomlinson gave him the voucher. About an hour later, all hell broke loose. He had exceeded his financial delegation a hundred fold. After two weeks Tomlinson was sent to set up the Northern Suburbs emergency relief office in the Casuarina High School.

Three months after the initial meeting of the Council of Civil Liberties, the police officer who had been elected interim secretary placed an advertisement in the NT News declaring the planned meeting of the CCL had been abandoned due to the cyclone. But at the appointed hour of 8pm a small band of the originators and Tom Pauling, later the Administrator ,who had been elected to the Council’s interim executive, entered the rubble-strewn ruins of Brown’s Mart (the agreed site for the subsequent meeting) and a motion was moved thanking the interim committee for their efforts and disbandening them. An election of new office bearers was then held.

Regional Council of Social Development (RCSD)

After Cyclone Tracy, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Clem Jones , was appointed El Supremo of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission. There were undoubted sighs of relief among senior staff at the Welfare Branch when Tomlinson took leave from the public service to work as the Social Planner with the Regional Council of Social Development, which was part of the Australian Assistance Plan. One day, a member of staff, Kass Hancock asked him to go to the hand over by Jones , to RCSD, of a demountable office in Casuarina. The speeches were mercifully short, much to the relief of several senior Commission staff.

Jones said something like, "Well that was short and sweet, we have an hour or so till the next appointment". Tomlinson , one of whose brothers-in-law had had a lot to do with Clem, suggested adjourning to the Marrara Hotel for a cold beer. After a couple, Clem asked ,"Well, while we’re here, is there anything else we can do for you?" Tomlinson replied, "You could knock down the cellblocks of the Essington House remand centre." When asked why, Tomlinson told of the night the young girl had nearly died and a couple of other horror stories he had heard about the place from staff who had worked there. "Where is it?" Clem asked. "Just across the road" several people chorused. The group piled out of the pub and drove the 150 metres to the remand centre. Most of the open part of the centre had been badly damaged but the cellblocks were still intact.

Jones found a place to sit about 80 metres from the cellblocks and dispatched his senior engineer and senior architect to inspect the site. Clem demanded more details of the young people who had been locked up there and the reasons for their incarceration. About 20 minutes later the engineer and architect returned and announced that whilst the main building would need to be demolished the cellblocks were structurally sound but would need re-roofing. Clem exploded: "Structurally sound- my arse! I can see significant cracks in the walls from here." Engineer and architect beat a hasty retreat in the direction of the cellblocks, returning five minutes later , confirming they too could now agree there were structural faults and recommended immediate demolition because of the safety hazard the site presented. Clem pointed to the completely intact gymnasium and asked "Do you want that knocked down too?" Kass replied , "No, we plan to hold dances there for young people."

One of the workers in the RCSD, Clive Scollay, was using low cost video cameras to help people get on with life after the cyclone. One afternoon there was a rumpus on the footpath in Smith Street opposite the RCSD office. A police officer had an Aboriginal youth on the ground. Tomlinson went down and remonstrated with the officer when it appeared to him that unnecessary force was being used. Clive filmed the event from the RCSD office.

The Council of Civil Liberties took the videotape to the Commissioner of Police and complained. alleging excessive use of force. A copy of the tape was kept in the RCSD office. Some months later the office was broken into and apart from the petty cash tin the only other thing that was identified as missing was a hand- drawn poster behind the lunch room door calling for an experienced sapper unit to do some explosive operations in the uranium province. That poster was in Tomlinson’s handwriting. It was assumed by some that the break-in was the work of ASIO or the Special Branch.

Some years later ,when the videotape was handed back to the Council of Civil Liberties, Tomlinson, in his capacity as secretary, asserted the tape had been doctored. Considerable Press interest was aroused, the Police Commissioner claimed to have been criminally libelled. Tomlinson arranged to get a copy of the original tape sent up by Clive Scollay . Tomlinson agreed to play both tapes to the police and arranged to have a journalist and a cameraman from NT News at theviewing .

After the screening, the police produced a search warrant, which Tomlinson read and then refused to relinquish, demanding a copy be given to him. A struggle ensued which the cameraman dutifully recorded and the front cover of next day’s News was entirely devoted to photos of the struggle. In a book some years later, Tomlinson used the photos with the caption "showing the author helping the police with their enquiries".[ Both copies of the videotapes were the same. For those who believe in conspiracy stories and UFOs , it was said that, at the time of the break-in of the RCSD office, the doctored tape was inserted in the box containing the original footage, which was removed. Richard Nixon would surely not have had to resign had there been such skilful plumbers working for him, instead of the Watergate amateurs.]

Tomlinson was charged with a number of offences, but barrister Geoff James, took an action in the Federal Court that found the search warrant had been insufficiently precise and police had exceeded their powers. The charges were eventually dropped.

Tomlinson became one of many Darwin activists who campaigned against the Indonesian invasion of East Timor . He was involved in the 1976 attempt to take a boatload of medical supplies to East Timor on the vessel Dawn . Intercepted by the Navy , those aboard were skipper Manolis "Manny" Mavromatis , Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith, James Zantis, of Bondi, Sydney , and Harold Clifford Morris ,of Deniliquin, NSW. Wesley-Smith had asked Tomlinson to take some of the supplies down to the Quarantine Station boat ramp to rendezvous with Dawn. Tomlinson’s car was being serviced , so he used the RCSD Kombi van to deliver the supplies. That night the Dawn was intercepted by a Navy boat as it attempted leave Darwin Harbour and all four on board were arrested. Tomlinson was arrested the next day and charged with aiding, abetting, counselling and being concerned with the illegal export of goods and being on Quarantine Station without permission. The late David Scott, Director of Community Aid Abroad, said it was "about time a social worker was charged with counselling." Customs seized both the vessel and the RCSD Kombi van .[More details of this in the next exciting post of the Rob Wesley-Smith series ].

The RCSD was involved with setting up children’s playgroups in the rural area, a prisoners' support group, a housing advocacy program, the Darwin Homemaker Service designed to help families who had been in Housing Commission homes destroyed by Tracy whom the Commission no longer wanted to house, and the Darwin Community Welfare Union, which in subsequent years morphed into the Darwin Unemployed Workers’ Union that held, on the parklands above Lameroo Beach, the Dole Bludgers Picnic at which 3000 people were wined and dined (thanks to the generosity of local businesses). In a later manifestation this Union became "Colie"- the Coalition of Low Income Earners and succeed in providing low cost accommodation .

Darwin Community College

In May of 1977, Tomlinson , a lecturer at the DCC, was the centre of a major argument about academic freedom when it was alleged he advocated sabotage in a course for the Associate Diploma of Community Work. Police were sent to the college without prior consultation with the acting principal .Once again he was the subject of lively debate in the media and parliament. Many students from this course did field placements at the Unemployed Workers’ Union and Colie.

For a couple of years Tomlinson published a small monthly magazine entitled Farewell to Alms, a play on the Hemingway novel. As its name suggests , he wanted to see the welfare system disassociate itself from the poor law charity system and embrace universal income guarantees such as a guaranteed minimum income. In one issue ,Tomlinson wrote an article in which he alleged that the Director of NT Welfare was murdering Aboriginal children by severely limiting their access to welfare payments. He states his luck luck with the law ran out at this point and he became the first person after Frank Hardy to be charged with criminal libel in Australia.

Tomlinson and Darwin lawyer , Geoff James , flew to Sydney to see a barrister who pointed out that, among other things, in order to prove "murder" it had to be shown that the accused had by his or her actions committed an act that directly led to the death of a specific person. Tomlinson’s arguments about statistical increases in Aboriginal babies dying simply wouldn’t stand muster. The Sydney barrister urged Tomlinson to make a complete retraction.

Geoff James took him across the road to a pub and said "Did you enjoy that? I hope you did because that hour just cost you $1200 and if we get him to defend you then you are looking at a minimum of $20,000. What did your last book cost to print?" Tomlinson issued the apology ,the criminal libel charges were dropped.

In a later edition of Farewell to Alms, Tomlinson alleged that by making it hard for parents to get welfare payments, it resulted in increasing numbers of Aboriginal children dying in remote parts of the NT. He was sued for libel and an out of court settlement of $5000 was reached.

In 1982, Tomlinson published Social Work: Community Work / Betrayed by Bureaucracy. In 1983, after sitting through an inquest into the death of an Aboriginal prisoner who had escaped from Darwin Hospital’s psychiatric ward, was recaptured and subsequently mortally injured , Tomlinson published a play entitled The Death of Phillip Robertson. After a reading at Brown’s Mart in October 1985 there was an eight week season at the New Theatre, Newtown, Sydney, beginning in December 1988.

In 1983/84, the Darwin Community College commissioned an external review of the Community Work course and despite the review recommending its continuation , the DCC executive committee , consisting of Director Joe Flint and Chairman, Nan Giese , lowered the boom. Tomlinson was made redundant in late 1985.

People’s Poems and Struggles

* Tomlinson bites mud crab instead of fat cat . A Black Snake once sank its fangs into John at Fogg Dam and he spent a night in hospital.

In 1986 he studied full-time for his PhD. at Murdoch University, his marriage to Clare breaking up late that year. His degree was finally awarded in 1989. In 1987 he was appointed Director of the ACT Council of Social Service and lived in Canberra until 1993 when he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Community Work at the Queensland University of Technology.

A poem he wrote in 1994 raised the plight of the Timorese. Dr Tomlinson retired from the QUT position in 2006. His latest book of poems and song lyrics (published in 1999) was entitled People’s Poems and songs of Struggle. His foreword said the collection had been published in the hope that those who read would be inspired to make the world a better place. Many of the pieces had arrived in their present form due to the craft of Penny Harrington and Peter Hancock. Many of the works had been read on picket lines, public meetings, demonstrations , lectures, fund raisers and sit ins. In 2007, he married Penny Harrington, his long- time partner. After having reluctantly sold his boat and trailer bearing protest stickers , he recently got among the fish in New Zealand , writes and does his bit to urge governments and oppositions to adopt universal income support policies, to end the NT Intervention and treat asylum seekers humanely. NEXT : Dr Tomlinson’s plan to lift the income of the poor.