From Walgett, where he built a bag church and a wooden hut for himself, he ministered to Aboriginal communities, travelling long distances by motor cycle, addressing meetings and making converts.
Choosing the old Mount Margaret goldfield, he leased its common and began to erect huts and raise goats to finance provision of rations.
Mount Margaret had been secure from 1927 when police began to entrust Aborigines of part-descent who were state wards to Schenk's care rather than to the Moore River government settlement north of Perth.
He opposed infanticide, the ritual drinking of blood, the use of sacred boards (which he thought were deified), and in-law avoidance laws which undermined his mass meetings.
Elkin later criticized Schenk's attitude to traditional Aboriginal beliefs; in turn the missionary accused the anthropologists of fostering "works of darkness" and "the resurgence of the devil".
Nevertheless, Schenk bitterly opposed the 'merge' and 'absorb' policy for Aborigines of mixed descent which Neville advocated; he resented the chief protector's complaint that the growing Mount Margaret population was undermining assimilation.