The decision by president elect Donald Trump to appoint Darwin born millionaire Andrew Nicholas Liveris - pronounced Liv Eris by an Australian commercial TV newsreader - to head the American Manufacturing Council brought back fond reporting memories of the Northern Territory more than half a century ago , particularly the episode in which the editor of the Northern Territory News , Jim Bowditch , defied attempts by authorities to deport Malays who had been employed in the pearling industry .
Dubbed the Stayput Malays , Bowditch not only hid them in his own house , which was raided by police , but in a dramatic night dash drove them at high speed down the track , expecting roadblocks , to a hideaway farm , blowing a tyre in the process , and ploughing into the bush along the way .
When they came out of hiding with a guarantee that their case would be investigated , Bowditch received word from an impeccable source that when they next checked into the Immigration Department office in Darwin they would be arrested and flown out of the country .
This caused a flurry of activity in the News office . Bowditch frantically rang round trying to find the Malays who were thought to be in town shopping . Before he ran out of the office and drove off at speed, he instructed me to take up a position outside Immigration , and on seeing the Malays I should tell them to run like hell , go into hiding as they were going to be arrested and deported .
In my distinctive first car , a white Mayflower , with great red upholstery , which had belonged to the wife of the Rum Jungle uranium mine manager , I took up my post , glancing up and down the street . I waited and watched , waited and watched .
Then , the Holland blind at the front of Immigration was parted roughly by a pair of hands ... and there was the head of Immigration - Les Liveris, uncle of Andrew Liveris - peering out . Fighting back the urge to wave , I peered back . The Malays did not arrive on the scene. An official report of the Stayput Malays said the Immigration office had been kept under observation .
Les Liveris , well regarded in the Greek and wider Darwin community , took Andrew , born in l954, under his wing when his father died , became his mentor . Andrew went to the Darwin High School ( later donated $500,000 to the school kitty ), became a highly successful businessman , chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemicals . In 1980 Les Liveris received the Order of Australia for public service and service to the community and a library was named after him in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs . The Malays stayed on in Darwin, one becoming a prominent chef at the Parap Hotel .
