Eleanor Jane Walker (1863-1940) (Nellie) was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire on 1 March 1863. She was the third child and first daughter of the eight children of Thomas Walker (1833-1903) and Ellen (also) Walker. Her parents were drapers, hoziers and milliners in Harrogate.

Thomas left his family in 1872 and Ellen reared her children alone while maintaining the family business. The adult children all left for Australia at different times. Eldest son John Arthur (Arthur) died when Maitland was shipwrecked off Huon Island, Queensland in 1874. Alfred sailed for Australia on Harbinger ex London on 19 August 1882. Eleanor was 22 when she arrived in Sydney on the Chimborazo on 1 December 1885.Her occupation was documented as dressmaker. After their mother died in February 1887, her siblings Annie, Gertrude Eliza (Gertie), Mary Emily (Emmie) and Edmund Cromwell (Eddie) sailed for Sydney on RMS Orizba on 24 November 1887. Thomas Ernest (Ernest) was the last of the family to leave England and arrived in Sydney on 6 August 1888.

On arrival in New South Wales Eleanor resided in the New England area where her brother Alfred and family had settled. Family reminiscence is that her fiancée Anthony died on the eve of their wedding, and in 1891 Eleanor responded to an appeal for women missionaries in British New Guinea. Eleanor and Jane (Jennie) Tinney from Ballarat became the first two Wesleyan missionary sisters appointed for foreign work. The two women departed Sydney on the Borough Belle for Dobu Island in British New Guinea on 23 April 1892.

In June 1896 Eleanor returned to Sydney on furlough and returned to Dobu for at least a further four years before joining a Mission in India. She then joined the Aboriginal Mission at Bulgandramine in New South Wales and also worked on other Missions in Australia. By 1928 she had returned to Sydney and in the early 1930's visited England. Her letters and memorabilia are held by extended family. These include the Journal, shells, a wooden club, a dingy oar and photographs.

Eleanor was a member and office bearer of the Women's Auxiliary to Foreign (Overseas) Missions and a supporter of missionary work for the rest of her life.

Jane Tinney was born in Ballarat, Australia, on 30 June 1867. She went to British New Guinea (later Papua) as a Methodist missionary in 1892 and was stationed at Dobu. She resigned owing to ill health in 1902. Later, she did mission work in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Nicolai Michoutouchkine is from a family of Russian emigres based in Paris. He started travelling in 1953, before a brief period of conscription and work in New Caledonia. Michoutouchkine settled in Port Vila in 1961 with Aloi Pilioko, an artist from Futuna. They collected more than 6,000 indigenous art objects from right across the South Pacific which have been exhibited, with their own works, in Noumea, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden, Russia and Central Europe, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Amy Constance Heussler (nee. Henry) was a prominent feminist and a founder of the United Associations (the association formed by the merging of Women's League of N.S.W. and the New South Wales Women Voters' Association). She was married to William James Heussler on 23 November 1892. They had two sons and two daughters. Amy is the granddaughter of London Mission Society (LMS) minister Revered William Henry.

William Henry was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1770. He was a carpenter and joiner before joining the London Missionary Society. He married Sarah Maben and together they had four surviving children. In August 1796, they joined a group of missionaries aboard the 'Duff' in sailing for Tahiti. After deciding it was too dangerous, the missionaries continued on to Sydney, Australia aboard the 'Nautilus'. Along with shipmate James Fleet Cover, Henry established three congregations in Sydney, including at Parramatta, Toongabbie and Kissing Point, which later became St Anne's in Ryde.

In 1811, the family returned to Tahiti and Henry was inducted as a minister in a Tahitian church. His wife, Sarah, died in 1812. On a return visit to Sydney in 1813, he remarried, to Ann Shepherd. They went on to have ten children together. They remained in the islands until retiring to Sydney in 1848. William continued to preach at Kissing Point. He died in 1848, and Sarah in 1882.