The Smith of Dunesk Mission was an inter-denominational organisation set up principally to convert Aboriginal people. In particular, the fund came to support the work of Presbyterian ministers working with the people of the outback. From 1882 co-director Rev. Robert Mitchell was based in Port Augusta, travelling widely through the bush. He rented a cottage at Beltana from 1894 and, accompanied by his daughter Agnes, toured the isolated communities visiting shearers and station hands, miners, railway workers, Afghans and Aboriginal communities. The two frequently camped in the open and travelled with a portable pedal organ, which Miss Mitchell played in homesteads and shearing sheds to accompany services conducted by her father. They were warmly welcomed wherever they went.