[4] He made a lengthy solitary trek on horseback across Australia, from south to north, Leigh Creek to Darwin, then east to Charleville, and drew up a report which was published as a pamphlet ion 1915, regarding the conditions of the Aboriginal people as he had observed them.
[5] A year after World War I broke out, Love joined the Australian Imperial Force and was eventually assigned to the Anzac section of the Camel Corps with the rank of second lieutenant.
He had an unusual brief for the time of "non-interference" with the traditional culture,[8] in some of which rites he came to think he could detect analogies with Christianity, likening their manner of washing and sharing drinking water to the sacraments.
[9] He actively encouraged Aboriginal people to conserve and transmit the traditions of the elders, such as the ceremonies of initiation, thinking that Christianity could only be taught by example, and adopted by natives who decided to do so on their own.
[10] It was widely regarded as one of the most successful missionary enterprises in Australia, and Love was called by the Worrorra, djidjai (daddy), as his wife Beatrice was known as amagunja (mummy).