WAL WALKER

Through my family I am connected to the arrival of the first British to settle in Sydney. On one side of my family there are four convicts from the first fleet and one from the second fleet who came accompanying a surgeon, D’Arcy Wentworth, the first fare-paying passenger to the Colony. On the other side of my family, William Walker arrived in 1813 from Calcutta to sort out the affairs of Robert Campbell, whose trading enterprise was under duress, after Campbell had been sent to London by Governor Macquarie in support of Bligh. These and many of their descendants took an interest in the welfare of the Indigenous Australians. Some advocated for them as members of parliament, in New South Wales and Queensland, in the first Commonwealth parliament and later as the first Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. It is not unreasonable for the reader to understand that I have a passionate interest in Australian history and the welfare of the Australian Aborigines. My history, Jane & D’Arcy: Jane Austen & D’Arcy Wentworth, in two volumes, tells a story long suppressed by Jane Austen’s family, who prevented her for travelling to Australia with D’Arcy. The Squatters’ Grab, looks at the failures of government and administration, in London and the Colony, that allowed the violent dispossession of the Indigenous people. It unearths, many for the first time, the people and incidents responsible for this disaster. Two further books will be published by Arcana Gallery Press; later this year: Walkers: Merchants, Bankers & Squatters and in 2025: Bill Wentworth, His Life and Times. What I would say about myself is that I have been a researcher, trained as an economist, who has become an historian through exposure, travels throughout Australia, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa; now in retirement, having the time and knowledge to investigate and make new knowledge available to readers. I hope you enjoy the stories.