AustLit

Bowditch relates the story of genial local, 'Dapper' Donald Duncan, who was for several years a cleaner at the offices of the Northern Territory Times, when Bowditch worked there, and the only true 'remittance-man'* Bowditch has ever met. 'Dapper' was originally from a privileged family in England, but his partiality for alcohol led him into disrepute, and to banishment in Australia. One evening the intoxicated Dapper fell off the wharf and survived six hours adrift on the ocean. Amazed by Dapper's feat, his employer sent him on a recuperative holiday shortly afterwards. Sadly, Dapper's holiday, the first he had ever had, was brought to an end with his death in an automobile accident on an isolated bush road.

(* An Englishman, from a good family, whose bad behaviour has resulted in his being sent to Australia where he lives off remittances sent by the family.)