Most of his education must have come from his mother, whom he adored: a cultured and talented woman who, among other attributes was a fine chess player, and taught her children to play at a high standard.
In 1870 he was nominated for the Humane Society's medal when he dived into the river fully clothed to rescue a young man who had fallen overboard from the Coonatto.
Moodie founded the weekly newspaper The Portonian (1871 – May 1879) as a forum for news about Port Adelaide, but much of the paper's content was devoted to criticising the Parliament, the Governor and just about any other authority figure.
He employed a talented cartoonist in "Cerberus" (John Eden Savill, better known as a racehorse owner), and journalist Spencer Skipper, who later, as "Hugh Kalyptus", gained fame for his satirical column "Echoes and Re-Echoes".
[6] Moodie was an excellent swimmer, and on one occasion in 1880 outlasted the renowned "Professor" Frederick Cavill (1839–1927) in a swim from the Semaphore to Glenelg, a distance of 9 or 10 miles (14 or 16 km).
Moodie, older, "blue-blooded and scarlet-faced"[8] and somewhat corpulent, kept up with his rival and continued for several miles after Cavill was forced to retire due to eye inflammation, but did not complete the distance.
[10] Persistent rumours that Moodie had cheated by touching the bottom and so dishonestly propelling himself were rebuffed by referees who had accompanied the pair in another boat.
He and Ugende took a steamer to Melbourne with the avowed intent of giving Alfred Thomas Clark, the paper's prominent co-owner, a caning.
[11] Not having sufficient funds for the return passage, the pair walked back to Adelaide, taking 17 days, crossing the Ninety Mile Desert in five.
Genial and sociable but erratic, "Zulu" Moodie as he had been dubbed[15] seemed to be continually in the public eye: he put himself forward as candidate for the seat of Encounter Bay, but was hissed down; he offered to lead a contingent to fight in the Transvaal, then to organise a South Australian Guerrilla Force; he wrote "Letters to the Editor" on subjects as diverse as decoding the Biblical 666[16] and the ban on ostrich farming.