People Australia

Joseph Walker, n.d.

photo is taken from the dustjacket of his book, No Sunlight Singing

Joseph (Yorky) Walker (1910-1971) miner, waterside worker, trade union official and author 

Birth 3 September 1910 at Harewood, Yorkshire, England, son of Alfred Walker (1875-1956), grocer’s waggoner, and Agnes, née Kitson (1879-1964), domestic servant. Marriage: 17 December 1946 at Darwin, Northern Territory, to Bertha May Laidler (1912-1975), a former Communist. They had one son. Death: 19 January 1971 at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Park, Melbourne, Victoria; usual residence Station Street, Coburg. 

• Grew up in the west Riding of Yorkshire and was educated at Ripon Grammar School.
• Emigrated from Yorkshire aged 17, arriving in Australia aboard the Benalla in 1928. Worked as a miner at Mt Isa and in Western Australia, contracting silicosis which developed and was ultimately the cause of his death.
• Moved to Darwin, Northern Territory, during World War II to become a waterside worker. Was organiser and later secretary of the North Australian Workers’ Union. Edited Northern Standard, the union newspaper. Founded the Darwin Workers’ Club and another co-operative enterprise. Particularly active in strikes, 1946, when he called the Northern Territory, ‘the socialist sixth of Australia’. Conservative newspaper styled him the ‘little czar’.
• Strong proponent of Aboriginal rights. Wrote No Sunlight Singing, exposing the oppression of Aboriginals. Nicknamed ‘Yorky” after his birthplace.
• Moved to Melbourne where he remained active in working class and anti-war demonstrations. Described by James Garvey as having “something of the primitive force of a Jack London with the wrath of a Peter Larkin”.
• Occupation on his death certificate was given as postal department technician. Cause of death: necrotizing pancreatitis (months), bronchopneumonia (1-2 weeks) and peritonitis.

Sources
Tribune, 3 February 1971; Northern Standard, 14 June 1946, p 6, 30 August 1946, 13 December 1946, 7 November 1947; photograph and biography in his novel No Sunlight Singing: https://www.nosunlightsinging.com/aboutauthor.html