Frederick Wills

Frederick Charles Wills (14 November 1870 – 8 August 1955) was a pioneer of cinematography in Queensland, Australia, recording the first moving images of life in that state between 1899 and 1903. Personal life and career Frederick Wills was born in Devon, England, and came to Australia around 1889. He settled in Sydney and lived at Croydon working as an artist. He married in 1895 and moved to Queensland in 1897 where he was employed as an illustrator and photographer for Queensland Department of Agriculture. He worked there until 1903 and it was in this period that he was involved in pioneering cinematography in Queensland. After his resignation in 1903 he operated a photographic studio in George Street Brisbane for two years. Wills and his family then moved to Toowoomba where he started a photographic equipment business and photo studio in Ruthven Street. This business prospered until 1914 when he left Toowoomba, it is not certain where he went from there as there are no surviving records apart from his obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1955 which noted he had died in Rowena in north-western New South Wales. There are numerous other surviving images and publications as he was active in doing professional and studio photography until the late 1930s. He also produced many pictorial guides and postcards, plus there remains a large body of work from his time in the Department of Agriculture.