Benjamin WALKER

Descendants of :

Benjamin WALKER

Generation 1

1. Benjamin WALKER was born ABT 1805 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, (West) Yorkshire and died 23 Nov 1884 in Mannum, SA. [After coming to Australia] he married Matilda Margaret WOODBURN 02 Apr 1851 in Kensington, SA. She was born ABT 1830 and died 02 Jun 1858 in Mount Torrens, SA. He married Eleanor MANSFIELD 25 Jun 1862 in Adelaide, SA.

Other events in the life of Benjamin WALKER
Burial: Mannum Cemetery
Occupation: Miller
Immigration: 19 Jul 1849, Cromwell

Children of Benjamin WALKER and Matilda Margaret WOODBURN:
  i.   2.   John Woodburn WALKER was born 10 Feb 1852 in Mount Torrens, SA and died 22 May 1920 in Woodville, SA. [See bio below from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146430271 ]
  ii.   3.   Jane Anna WALKER was born 18 Jul 1853 in Mount Torrens, SA and died 15 Jun 1897 in Unley Park, SA

Generation 2

2. John Woodburn WALKER was born 10 Feb 1852 in Mount Torrens, SA and died 22 May 1920 in Woodville, SA. He married Elizabeth Frances MORGAN 08 Nov 1876 in Port Adelaide, SA. She was born ABT 1856 and died 15 Mar 1932 in Mannum, SA, daughter of Edmund MORGAN.

Other events in the life of John Woodburn WALKER
Occupation: Miller
Residence: 1875-1915, Mannum, then Woodville.

Children of John Woodburn WALKER and Elizabeth Frances MORGAN:
  i.     Murray Woodburn WALKER was born 08 Feb 1878 in Mannum, SA and died 18 Oct 1949 in Mannum, SA
  ii.   4.   Edith Matilda WALKER was born 01 Mar 1880 in Mannum, SA and died 06 Dec 1968 in Mannum, SA
  iii.   5.   Gertrude Mary WALKER was born 28 Oct 1881 in Mannum, SA and died 29 Sep 1963 in Magill, SA
  iv.   6.   Ernest Wentworth WALKER was born 01 Feb 1883 in Mannum, SA and died 25 Apr 1946 in Glenelg, SA
  v.   7.   Alfred Albury WALKER was born 11 Dec 1884 in Mannum, SA and died 14 Sep 1939 in Mannum, SA
  vi.     Florence Emma WALKER was born 30 Oct 1887 in Mannum, SA and died  30 Dec 1922  at Woodville, SA.
  vii.   8.   Roy Euston WALKER was born 13 Oct 1890 in Mannum, SA and died 12 Feb 1974 in Mannum, SA
  viii.   9.   Stella Maud WALKER was born 11 Mar 1894 in Mannum, SA and died 27 Aug 1988 in Norwood, SA

3. Jane Anna WALKER was born 18 Jul 1853 in Mount Torrens, SA and died 15 Jun 1897 in Unley Park, SA. He married William ARMSTRONG 15 Sep 1884 in Port Adelaide, SA. She was born ABT 1865, daughter of Christopher ARMSTRONG.

Generation 3

4. Edith Matilda WALKER was born 01 Mar 1880 in Mannum, SA and died 06 Dec 1968 in Mannum, SA. She married Edgar Reginald BASEBY 02 Jul 1906 in Goodwood, SA. He was born 30 Dec 1887 in Mannum, SA and died 05 May 1939 in Mannum, SA, son of John Richard BASEBY and Elizabeth Alexandra McKECHNIE.

Children of Edith Matilda WALKER and Edgar Reginald BASEBY:
  i.     Gwenyth Woodburn BASEBY was born 06 Oct 1911 in Woodville, SA and died 08 Sep 1985 in Daw Park, SA. She married Harold Alexander MOXLY 24 Sep 1947 in Adelaide, SA. He was born ABT 1919 and died Sep 1988.

5. Gertrude Mary WALKER was born 28 Oct 1881 in Mannum, SA and died 29 Sep 1963 in Magill, SA. She married Allan Glen OPIE 21 Sep 1915 in Adelaide, SA. He was born 06 Jul 1887 in Appila Yarrowie, SA and died 12 Jul 1963 in Adelaide, SA.

6. Ernest Wentworth WALKER was born 01 Feb 1883 in Mannum, SA, left Mannum Sept. 1913, and died 25 Apr 1946 in Glenelg, SA. He married Dora Rachel COOMBS 01 Sep 1910 in Unley, SA. She was born 06 Jun 1888 in Norwood, SA and died 15 Jan 1969 in Glenelg, SA.

7. Alfred Albury WALKER was born 11 Dec 1884 in Mannum, SA and died 14 Sep 1939 in Mannum, SA. He married Emma Caroline Selma (Selma) KLOSE 24 Nov 1913 in Adelaide, SA. She was born 22 Dec 1884 in Rhine Villa, SA and died 15 Oct 1956 in Mannum, SA.

8. Roy Euston WALKER was born 13 Oct 1890 in Mannum, SA and died 12 Feb 1974 in Mannum, SA. He married Kate Alfreda BASEBY 27 Sep 1922 in Adelaide, SA. She was born 22 Oct 1891 in Mannum, SA and died 23 Oct 1960 in Mannum, SA, daughter of John Richard BASEBY and Caroline Eliza MASON.

Children of Roy Euston WALKER and Kate Alfreda BASEBY:
  i.     Kathleen Frances WALKER was born 15 Oct 1924 in Mannum, SA and died 11 Dec 2014

9. Stella Maud WALKER was born 11 Mar 1894 in Mannum, SA and died 27 Aug 1988 in Norwood, SA. She married Albert Rundle DOEPKE 05 Apr 1921 in Adelaide, SA. He was born 10 Jul 1885 in Hahndorf, SA and died 26 Sep 1951 in Adelaide, SA.

Last Updated:  6 Dec 2025

[1911]   Two interesting identities present at the opening of the Mannum Institute on Tuesday were Messrs. B. Baseby and J. W. Walker. . . .

Mr. J. W. Walker, who in 1880 was elected first President of the Mannum Institute, is a native of South Australia, and the only son of the late Mr. Benjamin Walker, who came to the State in 1848 on the ship Buffalo. He was born at Mount Torrens, in 1852. After leaving school he accompanied his father to England, Ireland, mid America, and remained in the United States for three years. On returning to South Australia he visited Victoria, After a short stay there he started milling, and was apprenticed to Messrs. Dunn & Co. He is the oldest millowner in South Australia today. He joined his father, who had started a milling business in Mount Torrens and remained there until 1878. In 1875 Mr. Walker, sen., founded the milling business at Mannum, and later on he appointed his son to control the Mannum branch. He has been engaged in this industry ever since. Mr. Walker is a partner in the firm of J. Standen & Co., which firm he joined in 1894. He also has interests in the Bridgewater mill. He has taken on active part in every movement having for its object the advancement of the district in which he resides, and all public functions receive his hearty support. His connection with the district council dates back many years, and during the period he has frequently filled the office of Chairman of the council and Water Trust. He is associated with the fraternity of Freemasons. In 1876 Mr. Walker married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Mr. Edward Morgan, of Port Adelaide, and the family consists of four sons and four daughters.

[1919]  January 24.
RIVER MILLING TRADE. 
MR. J. W WALKER, J.P.
LONG AND PROSPEROUS CAREER.
STORY OF A STRENUOUS LIFE.
There a few men so well known in the Murray districts of South Australia as Mr. J. W. Walker, who, after living for many years in Mannum, during which period he saw the farming areas in the vicinity redeemed from the virgin scrub, is now taking ease in his beautiful home at Woodville. Mr. Walker has enjoyed a life crammed with useful and well directed work, and he is still capable of much valuable exertion, but he has earned a rest from the more arduous labours of his business, which he is allowing younger men to carry on. There is little concerning the history or the possibilities of the river trade with which is is not acquainted. He remembers it when South Australia was the supply depot of all the station on the Upper Darling and Murrumbidgee, and when the docks at Goolwa were so crowded with shipping that it was difficult to obtain the discharge of the vessels. He has seen it in these latter days when the numerous railways constructed by all the Riverine States have practically ruined the steamship industry, and when by means of differential rates South Australia has been so robbed of its natural advantages that the limits of its river trade are bounded by the borders of the State. He has seen the river in such high flood that barges floating in the water above the main street of Mannum have loaded flour right alongside the mill, and he has seen it when the current has, by drought, been reduced to a mere dribble. The business of the mill, which his father established at Mannum in the beginning depended almost entirely for its prosperity on the orders which came down in such profusion from Bourke and other up-river stations; but the vigour and ability displayed made the concern independent of the river, and when the boats ceased to run, as railways were built, the business adjusted it self to the altered conditions. Mr Walker was not the only one of the principal businessmen on the river, but he also identified himself heartily with every movement which was calculated to benefit his town or district. He has always been in the highest sense of the word a good citizen, while his genial and kindly nature, added to his willingness to do generous actions as the need arose and the circumstances permitted, have won him the esteem and admiration of thousands of dwellers along the river and in the southern districts. 

There is one very romantic connection between Mr. J. W. Walker and Mount Barker, for when he was born it was Mr. Thomas Paltridge founder of the prosperous tannery in this town, who briskly went in quest of a midwife. He was a son of Mr. Benjamin Walker, a native of Clitheroe, near Sheffield (Yorkshire), where his grandfather and other ancestors were engaged in the woollen trade. Mr. Benjamin Walker landed at Port Adeaide in 1849, and immediately went to Mount Torrens, where he began business as a store-keeper. The building still stands, and it is now occupied by Mr. W. Hicks as a butchery.  In this house Mr. J. W. Walker was born. In 1859 his mother died. She was, as he often heard his father say, "By no means the least fair of Ireland's beautiful daughters." The loss of his wife had such a depressing effect upon Mr. Benjamin Walker that he sold out to Mr. J. H. Crowe, and took his son and and daughter to England, intending, like a good many Australians who had done well to make a permanent home in land of his birth. He expected to find the same people, the same interests, and the same town pump in his birthplace, and to pick up the threads of his life where he dropped them ten years before. He was disappointed, however, and he determined to go to the United States, where he had many relatives. In less than three months, therefore, he had started on the voyage across the Atlantic, and, landing in New York, he went to Levitsburg, Ohio, where he joined a brother in a woollen business. There were many Dutch settlers near that place when he settled there early in 1860. Here, again, he found it impossible to make a permanent stay for in 1861 the Civil War broke out, and he had many exciting experiences. He saw no probability of business being resumed or the war coming to an end, and so he made up his mind to leave America and to return to Australia once more.

—A Dramatic Episode.—
A dramatic episode which impressed itself on Mr. J. W. Walker's mind occurred about this time in Levitsburg. He was staying with relations, and the lady of the house was one of the rigid and cast-iron Presbyterians who placed her religion and her own conception of her duty in that respect before every other consideration. There was no whistling on Sunday in that house. The excitement of the times had photographed itself so indelibly on the boy's mind that he now clearly remembers how his playfellows, imitating their elders, were bent on preparing for war. The youngsters improvised some kind of uniform, shouldered wooden muskets, and drilled assiduously with "Old Glory" flying on a stick at their head. Everyone knew that war was inevitable, and there was electricity in the air. Of course, being Sunday, he was carried off to church to listen with what patience he could muster to the solemn discourse of the minister. He calls to mind that his name was Fenn, and that he had lost one of the joints of his finger. In the midst of the service the clatter of a horse galloping at headlong speed was heard approaching the church grounds. Then suddenly and swiftly in came a man spurred, booted, splattered with mud, and bearing all the conventional signs of haste and urgency. He walked up to the minister and with a quick gesture, asked permission to address the congregation. The date was April 12, 1861, and the messenger was a well-looking man of 30. He mounted the rostrum, and to the hushed and awed congregation and announced that war had begun between the Northern and Southern States. The first shot had been fired in the bombardment of Fort Sunter, in Charleston Harbour. He was leaving for the country town, Garretsville, seven miles away, with the news. There were no telegraphs in those days, and the mails ran but once a week. He said he would appoint someone that afternoon to begin a recruiting campaign. All the young fellows and the able-bodied men enlisted at once, and the messenger sped on. Not for many years afterwards did Mr. Walker learn who that messenger was. On the day that the news came that on July 2, 1881, General Garfield, President of the the United States, had been shot by the madman Guiteau, was he told by his father that he was the mud-splashed horsemen who had dashed up the aisle of that village church in such a dramatic fashion. Garfield had been professor of ancient languages in Hiram College Ohio, of which he was then president, and the institution was only about three miles from the church.

—Another Exciting Incident.—
Mr. Benjamin Walker had to wait some tome for a sailing vessel bound for Australia, but at last he secured berths in the Jack Frost (800 tons), of Boston, in which he left New York for Melbourne; the voyage occupied 127 days. The day after they left Sandy Hook they sighted the smoke of a steamer on the horizon moving slowly up and down the coast. This was the Alabama, under the command of the redoubtable Capt. Semmens [sic] [Raphael Semmes], on the lookout for Yankee ships. "We could not see her," said Mr J. Walker, "nor could she see us, but we knew she was waiting for ships, and if we had been going east instead of south she would have got us. There was no wind, and our captain was in great trouble, but the Alabama dare not come closer in. During the night a land breeze sprang up, and we edged in more to the shore. Next morning the skipper was up aloft with his glasses to hunt for the marauder, but there was no sign of the smoke. I often wished that he had captured us, for the experience would have been sensational and unusual, and we would have come to no harm. Capt. Semmens [sic] was a gentlemen a not a Hun pirate." "We arrived in Melbourne short of provisions, and no wonder. The Jack Frost was only small vessel, with room for but eight or more passengers aft, although there were four or five bush Americans in the steerage."

—Back to Mount Torrens.—
"We stayed about a month in Melbourne, and then came back to Adelaide in the coast ??? steamer White Swan which was wrecked on her next trip. We returned to the very place we started from, and again settled at Mount Torrens in 1862. My father thought of going to New Zealand with a friend, but he married again six months after he got back, and his wife persuaded him to remain in South Australia. He had become a share holder in the Mount Torrens mill, although he had never been actively engaged in the business, and circumstances arose which induced him to take it over from Mr. Prescott. In the meanwhile I had gone to school under Mr. J. W. Disher (a brother of Lady Milne) at Woodside. Among my school fellows were Messrs. John and William Johnston, W. F. Hughes, Perkins, the Holsteads, the Alfords, and many other well-known men. After leaving school I was apprenticed to John Dunn and Co., millers, at Port Adelaide, and when my term expired I went back to Mount Torrens to help my father in the mill. Things were then very bad. It was before the days of 'super,' there were no crops, and there was little to be done, and as I wanted more work it was decided to start a mill at Mannum."

—The Start at Mannum.—
Mr. Walker went to Mannum in 1875, and built a mill there which made a very successful start. Mannum was then a very small place, with but half a dozen houses, in addition to the hotel, kept by Mr. W. Schuetze [Gottlieb Wilhelm Schuetze]. Capt. Randell's house was the principal building. Things were very good on the river, and there was much profitable trade to be done, while cultivation in the scrub was just beginning. The mill was very busy in meeting the wants of the settlers on the Darling, for Bourke and Wilcannia then were dependent on South Australia for supplies by water, and everything was booming. The firm did large trade also with Brewarrina and up the Murrumbidgee. "In fact, the boats could not cope with it," said Mr. Walker, "and I have often begged the steamers to take freight for Bourke, but they would not look at it. Whyte, Counsell, & Co. had a boat built at Mannum, as the fleet they had was too small for the Murrumbidgee trade. We got wheat in those days from the back of Palmer and Sanderston. The first wheat we received by the river (in December, 1875) was a parcel of 129 bags from Caloote, 5 miles below Mannum, from Messrs. W. Heusler and Habich. Then came the railways—first through Echuca to Deniliquin, which affected the Echuca trade considerably. There were 75 hotels in Echuca in those days. Then came a railway running parallel with the river to Hay. Next a line was completed to Bourke from Sydney. That knocked the bottom out of the river trade, and boats which were tied up and doing nothing were for sale everywhere. Messrs. McCulloch & Co. and others sent their large fleets down the river, out of the mouth, and away to Gippsland or Queensland, in the hope to find trade. This was a very bad time for boat owners. Mr. William McCulloch came out from England, and saw his boats all hanging up, and he gave the curt order: 'Sell the blooming lot.' One of the owners had a boat and two barges built on the Clyde, sent out, and put together here, at a cost of £17,000. When they were finished the slump was on, and there was nothing for them to do. He therefore sold all three for £1,900, and was glad to get rid of them. That was in 1884-5."

—Uncertainties on the River.—
Mr. Walker told these stories of the experiences of the river trade even in the days when Whyte, Counsell, & Co. and Rich and Co., of Bourke, and other prosperous firms were doing tremendous business on the Murrumbidgee, the Wakool, and the Darling. The steamer Jane Eliza started off with a full load to Bourke, among her cargo being the materials for the construction of a large wood and iron hotel. She got above Wilcannia, and the river fell, and she could proceed no further. There she was stuck for nine months, and when she arrived at Bourke the hotel had been erected and was doing a flourishing business. Other material had been laboriously carted overland. What was done with the frame work of the building on board the Jane Eliza Mr. Walker could not say.  Another steamer, the Wentworth, took on board a full load of wool above Bourke, but the river fell so rapidly that she could not get away. The river remained closed for nine months—the year may have been the same as that of the other episode—and when the Wentworth arrived at Victor Harbour with the wool the following season's clip had been taken off the sheep, carted to the head of the railway, sent to the market, and sold. Under these circumstances it was not strange that the squatters agitated for railways to put them in touch with civilization. Our predecessors, unfortunately, were not enterprising enough to lock the river, or immense sums of money would have been saved great development would have occurred, and the Murray trade would now he immensely valuable, and Victor Harbour would have been one of the busiest ports in Australia, as it may someday be yet. 

—Mr. Walker and Mannum.—
Mr. J. W. Walter, whose father died in 1884, lived at Mannum from 1875 to 1915, and he saw the whole place grow from a little hamlet of about 50 people to a position of prosperity. He also saw cultivation on the river expand from a few scattered farms to a wide area of grain-producing country. While he had a great deal to do with both developments, he has always taken a deep interest in the river, and he is recognized as one of the great authorities concerning its history and its possibilities. He was the first Chairman of the District Council of Mannum, and he held that position at various periods for fifteen years. He was one of the founders and the first President of the Mannum Institute, and there was no local enterprise with which he was not prominently associated. He was made a magistrate so long ago as August 22, 1877, and he had much to do with settling difficulties and solving troubles, both on and off the bench. He was Chairman of the Water Trust for 23 years. All these positions were filled without fee or reward, and often without thanks, but Mr. Walker's one ambition was to help forward the success of Mannum and the district generally. When he and his father first went to the Murray Flats, as they stood on the top of the Palmer Hill, they saw a vast sea of scrub, with here and there a white patch, indicating a farm. Now from the same vantage point there is visible a broad spread of farms, with only an occasional belt of scrub, and all the producers are well established.

—The River Wheat Trade.—
Palmer was in the old time the central place of the district, but that, however, is now held by Mannum. When Mr. Walker first settled at Mannum there were no farms on the river, except one or two at very long intervals. The first man dealt with was Mr. August Jaensch, whose holding was opposite to that of the Hon. John Cowan. "We chartered the steamer Amphibious," said Mr. Walker, "and brought up 500 bags on the trip. Now hundreds of thousands of bags come down the river from farms beyond Loxton. One cargo Capt. Arnold brought down in a single barge was over 8,000 bags. The cultivation of the scrub began near Palmer, and continued to Mannum, and then gradually extended up the river until it reached Loxton and beyond it. The establishment of Renmark created a better demand for our products. The most flourishing place on the river is now Murray Bridge, which I remember before the bridge was finished, and when there were only a few huts, inhabited by the workmen. Murray Bridge is the terminal point for the lower river, and it must remain so until something is done with the Lakes, Goolwa, the Murray Mouth, and Victor Harbour to enable deep water vessels to load with safety, and to be sure of a regular supply of cargo.

—Murray Bridge Mill.—
Mr. Walker entered into partnership with Mr. J. Standen, and built a mill at Murray Bridge in 1893. This was a successful venture. Messrs. Standen & Co. sold out to Dunn & Co., but when they ceased operations Mr. Walker and his partner bought the mill again, and it proved very remunerative until taken over by the new company in 1913. Mr. Walker fears that the prosperity of Mannum will be affected by the construction of the railway from Monarto to Sedan, and that the mill there will be shut up, as a much better price can be given for wheat on the railway than on the river banks at Mannum. He expects to have to remove the machinery of the mill to some other place high up the river in a year or two.  Five years ago Messrs. Jackett Bros., Mr. Walker, and Messrs. Standen & Co. considered it advisable (instead of competing for the trade, to mutual disadvantage) to throw the three river mills into a company. This project has been satisfactorily accomplished, and as the old mill at Murray Bridge was too small and could not cope with the trade, the company has built a large, well equipped, and thoroughly up-to-date mill which is capable of turning out 20 bags of flour an hour (two tons). Wheat from Pinnaroo and all along the river will be available, and there is every prospect that the enterprise of the firm will prove profitable to themselves, and it is sure to be greatly advantageous to the river district. The townspeople of Murray Bridge approached the company in regard to the lighting of the town with electricity, and to supply power to generate the current. The company, therefore, have installed the necessary machinery, with dynamos, engine, and all appliances, and they hope to begin operations early in April. The new mill had a trial run last Friday (January 17), and it is hoped that everything will be going in full swing this week. Thus Mr. Walker has been instrumental in beginning a new era for Murray Bridge, which now has over 3,000 inhabitants, and which will steadily grow in population and importance as the years pass by.

—A Friend of Mount Barker.—
Mr. Walker has been very happy in his domestic life, and his wife, like himself, is highly esteemed throughout the Mannum district for her kindness and her hospitality. He has three sons, two of whom heard the call of Empire, and went to the front. One was wounded in the head and he has returned. He is now at Mannum. The other is expected home shortly. A third son is secretary of the Milling Company, and a fourth son is in charge at Mannum. There are four daughters. Mr. Walker has always been a supporter of the Mount Barker show, which he has attended regularly, without missing a meeting, for 30 years. He was also once a regular attendant of the Mount Pleasant show.