William Walker

... The daughter of the deceased [Henry Wallen], by one of the women called "Old Puss' was living as the wife of a man named Walker, at Hog Bay. He had intended going to live with them on his return to the island. One of his old women was a native of Van Diemen’s Land and the other a native of this colony ...

CORONER'S INQUEST UPON THE EARLIEST SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SETTLER. (1856, April 30). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49746165

Chris Ward refutes that William Walker's wife, Sally, was the daughter of Henry Wallen.

William Walker

• He was born ca 1812 and arrived on KI in April 1832. It is possible he was a crew member on Socrates, Henry or Elizabeth all of which visited KI early 1832. This is probably about the time that he married Sally. In 1834 with Wallan, Thomas & Seaman he assisted in the search for George Meredith.
• William & Sally had two sons George and a younger son Joseph (1836-1931). He was involved in the search for Africaine Walkers in December 1836.
• In the following year Walker arrested a Ramindjeri man named Reppinjeri for the murder of John Driscoll near Encounter Bay (GRG24/1 1837/259)
• 1844 he built a schooner of about 20 tons named William. It was wrecked at Hog Bay on 24 August 1847. He then built a small cutter also named William.
• He squatted at American Beach until being granted a 10 square mile lease bordering Eastern Cove in 1857. He bartered a bushel of wheat for each sheep from Michael Calnan and transported the sheep by boat a few at a time. (GRG 35/584)
• On 17 August 1860 Walker with Thomas Johnston and Robert Bristow sought help for the widow Wilkins and her children (Sturt Light Journal)
• On 5 January 1865 Walker chaired a meeting at the Hog Bay Post office calling for a public school to be set up and land to be set aside as a cometery (Observer 14 January 1865)
• On 1 August 1880 Walker died and was buried in the local cemetery [Penneshaw].

GAZETTE OFFICE, Saturday, November 18, 1837.

REPORTED DISCOVERY OF A FINE OUTLET FROM LAKE ALEXANDRINA.

THE community in Adelaide has been thrown into considerable excitement by a report which has been generally circulated that a noble river and harbour connecting Lake Alexandrina with the sea at Encounter Bay, had been discovered. From the enquiry we have made, we can state that a person named Walker, for some years a resident on Kangaroo Island, and who has been an occasional visitant here and at Encounter Bay, arrived from the latter place about ten days ago, and stated that he, in company with another man, had discovered, twenty-five miles to the south-eastward of the river discovered by Sturt, a fine harbour, into which a river, leading directly from Lake Alexandrina, empties itself. That ships of any size may enter the harbour; and that vessels might lie close upon the banks of the river in four fathoms water, and discharge their cargoes. That the land in every direction was beautiful, and the place altogether fit for a capital. Such is the report; and we confess that in the ignorance of all the proceedings of the surveyors we are kept in common with the public, it is not in our power to say whether the whole of En-counter Bay has even been seen, far less examined by the proper officers. Walker, whose story we have narrated, is a sober, and to all appearance, a steady, intelligent person—and if his tale cannot be wholly depended on, still it is sufficient to warrant some immediate step on the part of the Surveyor General, to determine a fact of so much importance to the colony.

Sally Walker

• Also known as Kalinga, Sarah, Princess Con, or Princess Condoy born c 1811 in the Cape Jervis area. She was the daughter of Condoy, a rupulle of the lakalinyeri Ramindjeri (an elected leader of the Ramindjeri clan of the Ngarrindjeri Nation)
• Sally first gets a mention in 1826 as being with a sealing gang of John Randall, James Kirby & James Everett at King George’s Sound. She was in Sydney in 1827.
• In 1831 Sally, her father and brother were able to ascertain details of the death of Collet Barker. The three of them were living with Henry Wallan at various intervals.
• Sally cohabited with Walker and became known as his wife from about April 1832.
• She died 17 October 1876 and is buried at West Terrace. I think it was a pauper’s grave.

- Chris Ward

I was rather taken back one day as we were standing in front of our huts, we saw a native woman coming. She was dressed in a long coat nicely buttoned up with the fur inside, and her hair was beautifully curled and hung in ringlets, and her appearance showed that someone had partly civilised her. As she was passing I made the observation that she was the prettiest black woman I had seen. She looked pleased, and turning her face towards us, said: "Ah, you plenty of gammon, sir." Finding she could speak English so well, we got her to tell us who she was. We found that she was the wife of Walker, of Kangaroo Island, one of the three men who had been left there for a number of years by a whaling ship, the other men's names were Cronk and Cooper, and these men were exceedingly useful to the first settlers, as they knew the languages of the different tribes and often prevented quarrels, and were interpreters for us.

JS CUMPSTON KI 1800-1836. “Her clothing consisted of a red woollen cap [such as sailors often wear] and a shirt of the same material and to cover the same material under of coat of thick leather such is used in England for harness and to cover her trunks.

Her Countenance was pleasing though perfectly black, and her hair not woolly like the African natives but long and straight around her forehead. Her legs and feet were bare but around her neck hung several rows of glass beads. Her chin was also ornamented with a kind of beard and whiskers grew at the sides of her face. What surprised us was her musical voice and the pleasing intonation with which she spoke the English language, for what she uttered with a proper accent and with fluency. Her height was about five foot six inches and her age Apparently about twenty-five years. We learnt that royalty itself had concended to pay us a visit in the person of the black female, for she was no other than Princess Con, [daughter of King Con] , chief of one of the native tribes and that her father was at that time on Kangaroo Island

From the diary of Mrs Robert Thomas.