Looking Back history feature: The Salvos come to Bulli

The Walker family home on Bulli Mountain. Back row: William Walker, Selina Walker nee Reeks with baby, Harold, Emma Hails nee Reeks.  Middle row: Charlie Walker, William Walker, Sarah Vey nee Salisbury, Jack Walker, Maria Reeks nee Salisbury with Jim, Ivy Hails Front row: Amy Walker , Ethel Walker and Florrie Walker

By MICK ROBERTS ©

William Walker and his large family in the early 1920s. Keith Walker is the baby being held by his mother to the right.

YOUNG William Walker would have been looked on as a curiosity by his school mates at Bulli in the 1880s.

Although William was like most other adolescent boys growing-up in the mining community, he was looked at differently because he belonged to a Salvationist family – a new religious order that had arrived in town just prior to the infamous Bulli Mine disaster of March 23 1887.

William was just 10…