Bourke's best - Tom Hodges

Tom Hodges was a bullock driver who was converted in Bourke in 1886 and later joined The Salvation Army in Nyngan, western NSW. According to Booth’s Drum: The Salvation Army in Australia 1880-1980, it was in Nyngan that Tom built up a ministry of his own. Buying a cart, he loaded it with vegetables and travelled outback roads as a holy pedlar, selling his vegetables to the scrub-cutters, reading the Bible to them and talking of Jesus. He was later awarded an ‘Order of the Founder’ – the highest Salvation Army honour – for his work.