R.M. Williams' boots, bush clothing becomes global brand, starting from a Prospect shed in Adelaide in 1934
R.W. Williams' learned leather work skills in the South Australian outback from a horseman called Dollar Mick.
Image courtesy R.M. Williams
Reginald Murray (R.M.) Williams rose from bush swagman to millionaire after starting to make saddles in 1932 and then bridles, saddles and riding boots in small factory in his father’s shed at 5 Percy Street in the Adelaide suburb of Prospect in 1934.
Today, it’s part of global network of retail outlets and hosts the outback heritage museum. R.M. Williams boots, with a then-unique single piece of leather stitched at the rear, are part of a whole range of quality Australian bushwear now recognised worldwide.
R.M. Williams – explorer, pastoralist, horseman, stockman, stonemason, leather craftsman, goldminer, well sinker, author, businessman, historian – was born in 1908 at Belalie North near Jamestown into a pioneering settler family that worked and trained horses.
The family moved to Adelaide when Williams was 10 so he and his sisters could attend school but, three years later, he packed a swag and left for the outback. At 18, he worked as a camel driver trekking through the desert, living with Aboriginals and learning to survive.
With a lack of work in the Depression, Williams returned to Adelaide where he married Thelma, then 16. They returned to living off the land in the Flinders Ranges and had six children.
Williams had learned leather work skills from a horseman called Dollar Mick. In 1932, with the expense of his son’s hospital treatment, Williams began selling saddles to wealthy Adelaide-born pastoralist Sidney Kidman. This led to making bridles, pack saddles and riding boots in the Prospect factory.
Williams had the luck of striking gold at a small mine he’d bought at Nobles Nob, near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory. This smoothed out down times for early R.M. Williams leather products but their quality and durability won through. By the 1950s, the company expanded into hats and clothing inspired by outback bushmen.
When his first marriage ended in the 1950s, Williams bought 55 hectares behind Adelaide’s Yatala labour prison where he built a homestead, planted vineyards and thousands of rose, and ran rodeos on the Dry Creek floodplain. When the government acquired this land over fears it would be used as a prisoners’ refuge, Williams left for his Rockybar property in Eidsvold, Queensland, vowing never to return.
Williams sold the business in 1988 to the old-established South Australian stock and station agents Bennett & Fisher that went into receivership in 1993. Williams’ friend Ken Crowley took ownership for two decades with the company growing to employ 600 globally (300 based in South Australia) with 50 stores and 900 stockists, plus exports to 15 countries, in 2013.