 His lifelong interest in mining was probably initiated with his family's move from Sydney to the Meroo, NSW goldfield when he was 3 years old (his father ran a ‘goldfield's pub’ there, – "The Golden Inn").His father subsequently established his capital from his mining activity on the goldfields around Mudgee and at Kaludabah (between Mudgee and Gulgong – where his brother, Damian Redman Wall, was born).With this stake his father established the "Travellers Rest" hotel at Stony Creek just north of Mudgee.