The “Big Jim” of the title is the legendary crusading editor of the Northern Territory News, James Frederick (Jim) Bowditch, war hero, staunch unionist, ALP supporter and renowned supporter of, and fighter for, the underdog.

As Simon writes, “It mattered not if you were regarded by society as a mental defective, an escapee on the run from police, a woman with children facing eviction or a member of one of the richest families on earth, Bowditch was prepared to take instant, often daring action to help or rescue you. Apart from covering the news himself his exploits often became headline news throughout Australia”.

This book is no hagiography but a warts and all telling of the colourful life of a character in a cast of characters who took over a struggling newspaper in ramshackle buildings with clapped-out equipment in the rough and tumble frontier town that was post-war Darwin and turned it into a widely read, respected and nationally influential publication.

Born in England, to a comfortable middle-class family, Bowditch developed a social conscience from an early age, first when his “gay blade” father’s profligacies left the family pauperised and the bailiffs cleared his home of all its possessions leaving his mother bereft and later when, as a boy scout, taking Christmas food to the poor in the slums of London he saw the squalor and filth to which so many were condemned.

It made him desperate to escape the grime of London and what he saw as its oppressive social order and that escape at the age of 17 came in the form of emigration aboard a boat to Australia.

His attitudes were strengthened during his first years in Depression era Australia and became even further entrenched when he enlisted in the Army at the start of World War II and what was to become a lifelong rebellion against misused authority first showed itself.

War service in first the Middle East, where he became one of the legendary “Rats of Tobruk” and then vicious hand-to-hand fighting against the Japanese in Papua-New Guinea toughened him up and this, together with his rebellious streak, saw him selected for the elite Z Special Force which harried the invaders from behind their lines.

Mentioned in Dispatches, he was belatedly awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) in 1949 and, even later still, was presented with a Bronze Star by the United States government for “meritorious service in 1945 while serving in Allied intelligence Force in the Pacific theatre”.

Post-war, Jim found himself in Alice Springs as a paymaster in the Commonwealth Department of Works and Housing, a position obtained due to the influence of the father of his new wife, Iris.

It led to his introduction to unionism through the Federated Clerks’ Union and subsequently to politics with the ALP.

A rich social life saw Jim involved in many other community and sporting activities including writing articles for southern publications and then the local paper, the Centralian Advocate which, after some time, he took over as editor.

It was his union and political activities which first drew the attention of the fledgling intelligence service, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), increasingly active in the febrile atmosphere of the Cold War and Prime Minister Bob Menzies’ campaign against communism. ASIO was to take a curious, often bumbling interest in Bowditch for many years.

Several years as editor of the Advocate established Jim’s reputation for support of the underdog but a marriage break-up, a new relationship with a woman who was, to use the now discredited term “half-caste” named Betty, and an increasing dislike of the racist and xenophobic attitudes prevalent in Alice Springs at the time saw Jim accept an offer to take over as editor of the Northern Territory News.

It had been established by a team of Sydney public relations operatives to counter the Northern Standard, a union-operated newspaper which was then the sole Darwin publication but was seen as too “communist influenced”.

The offer had been suggested by Doug Lockwood, the renowned correspondent for Melbourne’s Sun and Herald newspapers who had come to know Jim through his story-gathering visits to Alice Springs, and the regular stories Jim was contributing to the Northern Standard from Alice Springs.

The move to Darwin in 1955 saw him take control of a poorly resourced and equipped newspaper housed in leaky, war-damaged premises formerly occupied by the English, Scottish and Australian (E S & A) bank, known then as the Tin Bank and located between Brown’s Mart and the Anglican Cathedral in Smith St.

Not just a workplace, the old building had walled-in verandas converted to poky rooms occupied by various reporting and other staff and which provided a number of the more memorable anecdotes contained in this book.

Jim Bowditch’s 17-year career as editor of the NT News encompassed its purchase by a young Rupert Murdoch – one of his early media acquisitions – and involvement in a number of high-profile stories which included asylum seekers, the Gurindji people’s Wave Hill walk-off, the Vietnam War and Constitutional Development for the Northern Territory.

As Simon writes “Some of his campaigns helped shape the nation’s attitude on such issues as the White Australia policy, indentured labour, and Aboriginal advancement and land rights”.

Jim’s own brushes with the law were also fully and prominently documented as were stories of many characters, one being another Sydney PR man who re-imagined himself into the Great White Hunter safari operator, Allan Stewart.

This book offers a fascinating, often amusing, sometimes poignant look at a period when Darwin was emerging from its post-war malaise and becoming a proudly multicultural city and a man who played a large part in making that happen.

In chronicling the life and times of an extraordinary man Simon also sympathetically charts his decline into alcoholism, substance dependence reflecting a constant battle with the demons of his wartime experiences and ultimately dementia.

There is a telling moment when Jim’s elder daughter Ngaire, visiting her father in a hospice, discovers that, mere beds away, is his old friend Allan Stewart also in his last days. Their shouted reunion brings tears to the eyes.

It took until 2018, more than 20 years after his death for Jim’s contribution to journalism in Australia to be recognised by his inauguration into the Australian Media Hall of Fame. It is surely no coincidence that his old friend, Doug Lockwood also long deceased, was inducted into the Media Hall of Fame at the same ceremony.

■ RICHARD Creswick is a retired journalist who arrived in Darwin in time to get to know both the author and the subject of the book. He also contributed to the book’s editing and publication.

Big Jim: Crusading Territory newspaper editor, Jim Bowditch, is available at the Bookshop, Darwin or direct from the author at petersimonbooks@gmail.com. RRP is $35 plus $10p&h in Australia.