Faces of Australia: R.M. Williams

The Australian stockman is one that conjures up many romantic images of Australia like those from the stories of Banjo Patterson’s Man from Snowy River.  However, there probably isn’t any real life stockman that has had the effect of mainstreaming Australia’s bush image than R.M. Williams.  Reginald Murray Williams was born Belalie, South Australia in 1908.  Belalie was located just north of the Flinders Ranges in a remote area of the Australian Outback.  His family homesteaded with no running water or electricity in this remote area where his dad worked as a horse trainer.  So at a very young age Reginald learned much about living in the bush.  However, his bush days would come to a brief pause when at the age of 10 Reginald’s family moved to the South Australian capital city of Adelaide.

R.M. Williams

Reginald and his two sisters attended school in Adelaide, but the young Reginald did not much care for the city life.  He yearned for the big skies and open land of the Australian bush and finally at the age of 15 he packed his swag and a few other things and headed back out into the bush.  Out in the bush Williams did odd labor jobs at first, such as building a church in Victoria and constructing a mission for Aborigines in Western Australia.  Williams eventually took a job as a camel driver for a missionary named William (Bill) Wade.  He worked this job for three years, which he enjoyed because it allowed him to travel thousands of miles and see large areas of the great Australian Outback.  Additionally, R.M. Williams and the Bill Wase spent much time among the native Aborigines who further taught the young man more about surviving in the hostile Outback.

After completing his work with the missionary Williams had a hard time finding work and decided to return to Adelaide.  In Adelaide, Williams would meet and ultimately marry a woman by the name of Thelma Cummings.  The newlyweds decided to move to the land that Reginald grew up, the Flinders Ranges.  The Williams family lived off the land while Reginald earned money sinking wells.  It was during this time that Reginald met the man that would change his life forever, Dollar Mick Smith.  Williams was camped in Nepabunna, South Australia in 1932 drilling a well when he met Smith.  Smith was a skilled leather worker who was married to a Aboriginal woman and had a son who worked as a ranch hand in the area.   Dollar Mick to a liking to the young Williams and began to teach the 24 year old leatherwork.  The two men worked together and eventually created their first pair of stockman’s riding boots made from a single strip of leather that are so famous in Australia today.  Dollar Mick and R.M. Williams would remain friends for life.  Mick died in 1969 at the age of 90.

Williams bush home in the Flinders Ranges

In 1934 Williams’ son became sick with an eye disease and Williams need money for hospital treatment to save his son’s eye.  Williams took a collection of his best saddles and boots to the home of one of Australia’s biggest cattle ranchers Sir Sidney Kidman.  Kidman was impressed with the young Williams leather work and bought all his saddles.  Using the money he was able to get the treatment his son needed and still had enough money to buy more leather and equipment to open a small leather working business in Adelaide.  Initially Williams business did well with many people placing orders.  Williams decided to expand his business, but the expansion ended up being a mistake as he soon found himself deep in debt.

This debt problem ended up opening up another incredible chapter in R.M. Williams life.  An elderly woman approached Williams and offered to sell the young man a gold mine near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory that she could no longer work due to the death of her husband.  Williams bought the gold mine from her for $72,000 pounds by consolidating money from all his family and friends.  This collection of friends and family worked the small mine and eventually they all struck it rich.  The gold they found made them all millionaires and soon R.M. Williams was living in a posh mansion in Adelaide.  However, the rich life did not suit Williams and he longed to return to the bush.  Williams after a dispute with the South Australian government in 1950 vowed to never live in South Australia again. Williams wandered the bush and eventually bought a property in Rockbar,
Queensland.  Williams work hard to turn the property into a profitable
cattle station.  Soon his marriage fell apart and divorced his wife Thelma who had given birth to six children.

In 1955 Williams would get married again to his second wife who gave birth to three more children.  Williams continued to live in Queensland for many more years while his leatherworking business back in Adelaide continued to prosper.  By 1978 the R.M. Williams company had retail stores in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and finally Toowoomba, Queensland where Williams moved to in 1979.  Even though R.M. Williams was living in Queensland he continued to serve on the company’s board and regularly traveled to Adelaide for meetings.  In the 1990’s Williams sold his leather company to Ken Cowley and Kerry Stokes, but they kept Williams on as an advisor.

Besides his bush outfitting company that has become an Australian icon, R.M. Williams also the driving force behind the establishment of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland in 1988.  He also is the author of a number of books about his life and stories from the Outback.  R.M. Williams passed away on November 4, 2003 at the age of 95 on his property in Queensland.  Though he is now deceased the name and legend of R.M. Williams lives on with his legendary bush outfitting company that has continued to open up more stores in Australia and even expand overseas.  However, Williams life means more to Australians than just his bush outfitting company.  Acting Prime Minister John Anderson summed up best what R. M. Williams life really meant to Australians:

“He epitomised our
national character even though many Australians who walk in his boots
have never ridden a stock horse or watched the sun come up over the
Gammon Ranges.”

Without a doubt R.M. Williams is an icon of Australia.