From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Horatio Wills
Horatio Wills
Horatio Spencer Howe Wills (5 October 1811 – 17 October dead sheep, or kangaroo, or emu, or bullock’s paunch, or
Wills,
1861), or Horace Wills was an Australian pastoralist and any carrion to be obtained readily, to the axle of a light
politician. Born in Sydney, the son of a convict sent to cart, and at sundown (to cheat the crows) take a road,
Australia for highway robbery, Wills is notable as being or a cattle track, through the parts principally infest-
involved in several events in Australian history. He was ed, and as you go along leave a bait, in some such man-
also the father of Thomas Wills, the inventor of Aus- ner as I have described, at intervals of a mile or there-
tralian rules football. abouts. We generally drop a few pieces of unpoisoned
’The Argus newspaper dated Saturday 12 March 1921 meat around the bait, to arrest the dog in his rapid career
page 4 records the Horatio Wills family being at Burra on scent. It will be necessary to take up the baits which
Burra Gundagai till around 1840.[1] Thomas Wills, Hora- remain untouched at daylight, if you wish to economise.
tio’s son, was born in 1836 near Gundagai, New South This is a simple way of effectually ridding a station of a
Wales.[2] most outrageous pest. I may observe, also, that strych-
Wills was one of the first settlers of the Ararat district nia is found to be an admirable specific in attacks of the
in western Victoria, Australia, at a 125,000-acre (510 km2) eagle-hawk during the lambing season. No later in fact
property named Lexington near Moyston. Wills intended than this morning, I destroyed two in about ten minutes,
to build a house on the property which was finally com- which I observed hovering over the lambs of some im-
pleted in 1845. While at Lexington he is credited as hav- ported ewes. Touch the heart and liver of a dead lamb
ing named nearby Mount Ararat. He hired aborigines as with a pinch of the poison, and your success is certain.
station hands and harvesters on his property. The extermination of the wild dog instead of being a mat-
In 1852, Wills sold Lexington and moved to Belle Vue ter for the interference of the legislature, is in fact sim-
in Geelong and was elected to the Victorian Legislative ply a question between the settler and his merchant, or
Assembly in 1855. apothecary.” [3]
In 1861, Horatio moved north to Queensland, at
The Native Dog Cullin-La-Ringo in the Nogoa region near Rockhampton.
Just three weeks later, Horatio was murdered by aborig-
"A correspondent (Mr. H. S. Wills) of the Sydney Herald, ines, along with 18 others at the Cullin-La-Ringo mas-
writes : - A writer in your journal of a late date has treat- sacre, 17 October 1861; the biggest massacre of whites by
ed on the ravages committed by the wild dog of the Aboriginal people in Australian history.
colony in her northern provinces, and advocates some
legislatorial measure for their extermination. Permit me
to observe that these sanguinary pests of the sheep-fold
Sources
are to be extirpated with the greatest ease, and at very • http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/
little cost, much more speedily than any act of the kind A020548b.htm
alluded to would be likely to pass our chambers. One [1] ’A Notable Pioneer. Horatio Spencer Wills’
ounce of strychnia in chrystals, it being less subject to http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
adulteration in that state, will clear any station in the [2] Family history states 19 August near Gundagai
colony. This remedy may, or ought to be, purchasable in (reference "Thomas Wentworth Wills". An Index of
Sydney for thirty or thirty-five shillings. So that whilst Australian Wills Families: Descendants of Edward Wills.
my old friends north of Murrumbidgee talk of wild dogs, Tom Wills. 2006. http://tww.id.au/fam/liza-
they might get rid of them. Strychnia has been tried in edward/pafg03.htm#91. Retrieved 2006-07-05. )
this district with astonishing success. A ’brush’ is a thing [3] The Perth Gazette, and Independent Journal of
now to be wondered at. The result to myself alone, has Politics and News Friday 5 September 1851 from
been a saving of at least £350 a-year, not to speak of the NLA Beta Newspapers
annoyance and torture I am relieved from. The bait for Persondata
a dog is a piece of fresh meat of about eight ounces, into
Name Wills, Horatio
which a small quantity of the poison is inserted. This, sus-
pended from an overhanging branch, beyond the reach Alternative names
of wild cats, by a thin piece of twine, under a " nosable Short description Australian politician
" piece of carrion, is almost sure to secure any particu- Date of birth 5 October 1811
lar dog. But to ’smash the breed’ without mercy, attach a
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Horatio Wills
Place of birth Place of death
Date of death 17 October 1861
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horatio_Wills&oldid=472372736"
Categories:
• 1811 births
• 1861 deaths
• Australian murder victims
• People murdered in Queensland
• Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly
• Australian politician stubs
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