ABSTRACT
The Quaker missionary George Washington Walker was responsible (alongside his fellow missionary, James Backhouse) for establishing some of the first temperance societies in the Australian colonies. This chapter provides a brief biographical sketch and an introduction to the early work of the Quakers in Australia, as well as a consideration of the influence of evangelical thought on the wing of the movement to which Walker belonged. It goes on to provide a brief account of Walker's temperance activism, which included the establishment of the first temperance societies in most of the British colonies in Australia and southern Africa. The principal focus of the chapter is the conflict that broke out amongst the Hobart teetotallers in 1846 over the respective roles played by religious belief and ‘rational amusements’ within the ethos and strategy of the society. Drawing on a detailed examination of the archival material relating to the Hobart Town Total Abstinence Society split, this chapter offers insight into the role of class and religion in the temperance movement's second wave and provides a fresh interpretation of an incident that played a key role in Roe's characterisation of the movement. It also provides an illuminating example of some of the tensions and conflicts associated with evangelical involvement in the early teetotal groups of the 1840s.
