G.&R. Wills and Co. rises from ranks of Adelaide 19th Century drapers to become a retail, import and wholesale giant
The Adelaide city headquarters of G.&R. Wills and Co. grew to occupy the block bounded by Rundle Street, Gawler Place, North Terrace and Fisher Place, with a factory in Pulteney Street. The inset shows the classical frontage, designed by architect Daniel Garlick, of a warehouse addition on North Terrace, Adelaide city, the state-heritage-listed survivor of the G.&R. Wills complex.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
G.&R. Wills & Co. Ltd was a major softgoods (cloth and articles made from it) wholesaler in 19th Century South Australia. Its wholly-owned subsidiary George Wills & Co. was a shipping agent also based in Adelaide.
Richard Wills emigrated to South Australia aboard the Spartan in 1849, followed by his brother George in 1849 on the Minerva with some drapery. They set up shop and formed G.&R. Wills with premises at 40 and 41 Rundle Street, Adelaide city, in 1853. Two other brothers, Henry (also on the Minerva) and John, also emigrated but died soon after and were buried in West Terrace cemetery along with Richard, who died in 1862.
George Wills returned once to England to be married, and again, permanently, in 1859, to take charge of the company's purchasing house. The company grew into soft goods, stationery, fancy goods, warehousing and general importing.
Robert Tarlton, who’d started with a draper’s shop in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, in 1860. became a director of G.& R. Willis the next year. Charles Frederick Rischbieth, who had worked in the drapery of R.B. Lucas in Hindley Street, Adelaide city, was admitted, with Carl Bolk, into the G. & R. Willis & Co. partnership.
A few years later, Rischbieth married Elizabeth Susan Wills, a niece of George and Richard Wills. He succeeded Tarlton as managing director in 1869 before retiring in 1875. He continued to act as agent for George Wills in London. Later guiding lights in the company were accountant George Arthur Jury (who married Rischbieth’s daughter Elizabeth Susan "Lillie") helped set up the G.&R. Wills’s Perth and Melbourne branches, W. E. J. Brocksopp, and H. Venables. Hermann Oelmann, a commercial traveller for the company 1863-76, was made a partner after Carl Bolk died.
Around 1882, Herbert Phillipps started the subsidiary shipping firm of George Wills & Co. By 1922, the company also had branches in Melbourne, Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill as well as agencies in Sydney and Brisbane.
The Adelaide city headquarters occupied the block bounded by Rundle Street, Gawler Place, North Terrace and Fisher Place, and a factory in Pulteney Street, Adelaide city. The Perth warehouse ran between St. Georges Terrace and Hay Street, while the Melbourne premises were in Flinders Lane. The company went public in 1946 and continued to trade into the 21st Century and G.&R. Wills Wholesalers with offices in Northern Territory and Queensland.
