AustLit

At the age of six James Dawes and his younger brother were placed in Moriatta Children's Home in South Australia. He later became an apprentice carpenter before training for the Methodist ministry in 1953. In 1960 he was posted to Papua New Guinea with his wife and children, and in 1968 he became the superintendent of Mogumber Mission until its closure in 1972. Reverend Dawes continued to be involved in the transferral of children and cottage parents to new cottages in Perth up until 1977 when he returned to South Australia.