In this this unit he collaborated with historian Dr Hank Nelson and broadcaster Daniel Connell to produce the landmark 12-part radio series, Taim Bilong Masta. (I worked with Daniel at the PNG National Broadcasting Commission between 1974 and 1976.

The project recorded 300 hours of interviews with Australians and Papua New Guineans involved with Australia's colonial administration of PNG, which ended with independence in 1975

The material included many interviews with eminent people who guided PNG to independence: the first prime minister Sir Michael Somare, the first speaker of the PNG parliament Sir John Guise, former Australian governor-general Lord de L’Isle, historian Professor Charles Rowley, Sir John Kaputin, members of the Leahy family and many others.

Also featured in the series are Keith Jackson AM, who had the last word, and others associated with PNG Attitude including the late broadcaster Phil Charley OAM and author Trevor Shearston

Eventually Bowden and Connell dealt with about 300 hours of taped interviews which were to become 12 radio broadcasts and a 224 page book by Hank Nelson.

The ABC book, Taim Bilong Masta, was launched as at a Pacific Islands Monthly lunch in 1982 at the Occidental Hotel, Wynyard, Sydney.

Bowden graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1960 and travelled to the UK where he worked as a producer and radio interviewer with the BBC's Pacific Service. He returned to Tasmania after three years later and joined the ABC, where he stayed for the rest of a lengthy career.

In 1975 he began to make radio documentaries as a member of the ABC’s Drama and Features Department.

“Tim Bowden was for several decades one of our pre-eminent journalists and broadcasters, a storyteller whose curiosity for the world around him was valued by so many of our audiences,” said ABC managing director David Anderson.

“Tim was part of the generation of ABC journalists who brought those events and their meaning into Australian homes every night. He is perhaps best known as the host of much-loved ABC TV program Backchat from 1986 to 1994 and for his amazing documentaries on Australian research in the Antarctic that produced footage still seen today.

“Tim was part of the fabric of the ABC for decades and made a huge contribution to the national public broadcaster and to the nation.

“He was generous to his colleagues and was known as much for his sense of humour as his passion for journalism and the ABC.”

Bowden became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to public broadcasting in June 1994 and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001.

You can link here for the book and audio programs of Taim Bilong Masta