Reginald Murray Williams

In his early teens, Reginald Murray Williams left his home in the mid-north of South Australia and took up work as a lime burner in the Mallee scrub of north-western Victoria. The skills learnt in this work, together with his will to succeed and his sense of adventure, saw him, at age sixteen, heading for the remote gold fields of Western Australia. Work followed at a number of the huge pastoral stations of central Australia and the Northern Territory.  It was then that he learnt bush lore from the aborigines of the region and from the tough bushmen of the cattle camps, the many skills of the mounted stockman. 

During these formative years, RM grew to love the bush, its people and all its moods. It was during the Great Depression that RM (as he became known) set up camp hundreds of kilometres north of Adelaide at Italowe Gorge in the remote Gammon Ranges.  Barely eking out a dangerous, solitary existence sinking wells, RM began to craft boots, bush saddlery and some of the equipment required for use on surrounding stations.  It wasn't long before his work developed a reputation for craftsmanship and durability.

RM returned to Adelaide and began selling his riding boots by mail order. Handcrafted, comfortable and made to last a lifetime, they were formed by a man who understood the hardship and dangers of life in the harsh Australian outback. With no capital and little help, he built up a team of dedicated craftsmen and took out advertisements in the local press, asking customers for cash with their orders. From these small beginnings has grown the worldwide company we know today.  Over the following decades, RM diversified into bush saddlery, equipment and the company's trademark moleskins, jeans and bush shirts.