Barbara Barnes, Edna Walling's niece recalls:

I knew my grandparents, I remember them quite vividly. My grandmother was a delightful woman, with a delightful sense of humour, a very strong character but in a quiet sort of way. My grandfather was a professional man and he had been in the business of making scales and precision instruments. I don't know whether that business folded up or something or other went wrong with it, but there seemed to be a series of mishaps, misfortunes, financially in the family as they sort of descended in the world a bit. I would call them middle middle class rather than upper or lower, and certainly there was never any wealth, never any spare cash to spend. I remember my grandparents at a place called Arundel which was really a glorified boarding house in Melbourne, in Commercial Road, and I remember visiting them, they were always very nice as grandparents, friendly to us children.