10 Facts About Horatio Wills

Horatio Spencer Howe Wills was an Australian pastoralist, politician and newspaper owner.

Horatio Wills worked as a printer and editor for Australia's first newspaper, The Sydney Gazette, before founding his own journal, The Currency Lad, in 1832.

Horatio Wills fathered nine children, including Tom Wills, Australia's first great cricketer and founder of Australian rules football.

Horatio Wills was one of the first settlers in the area, and purchased a 125,000-acre property named Lexington near Moyston.

Horatio Wills built a house on the property; completed in 1845, it still exists and is heritage-listed.

Horatio Wills hired local Aboriginal people, the Djab wurrung, as station hands and harvesters on his property.

In 1852, Horatio Wills sold Lexington and moved to Belle Vue in Geelong.

Horatio Wills was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Grant on 10 January 1855; and was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for South Grant in November 1856, a position he held until August 1859.

In 1861, Horatio Wills moved north to Queensland, at Cullin-la-ringo in the Nogoa region near Rockhampton.

Less than three weeks later, Horatio Wills was murdered by aborigines, along with 18 of his employees at the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, 17 October 1861; the largest massacre of whites by Aboriginal people in Australian history.