Cirrus@Austlit

After a basic education, Jim Bowditch left school at the age of fifteen during the depression in the 1930s. At the age of seventeen, after a few years in menial jobs, Bowditch decided to farewell his family and the cold English climate in favour of Australia. He spent several years in various unskilled jobs before enrolling in the Australian Army after World War II broke out. He was discharged in 1946 and once again spent a few years going from job to job before being offered a position as a journalist with the Centralian Advocate. This opportunity was the beginning of a forty year career in journalism and writing.