Multicultural ministry

In her book, Booth’s Drum: The Salvation Army in Australia 1880-1980, Barbara Bolton writes that by 1911 Bowen was heralded by The Salvation Army as being the only all-Islander corps (church) in Queensland, even though the Salvation Army officers, Captain and Mrs Hof, were not of Islander descent. At Bowen, the Hofs were given some land on a plantation to erect a hall. The centre and its work were described in The War Cry: This place with its sapling uprights and framework, covered inside with hessian and outside with canvas, has truly been the birthplace of souls, and a real soul-inspiring corps has sprung up.