William W MILLS
Surveyor – Explorer – Prospector
MILLS William Whitfield – d 15 Aug 1916, 72yrs, at Widgiemooltha, WA, Occ: Pension and former surveyor, Father: Josias MILLS, Mother: Elizabeth Land WHITFIELD, Born: Plymouth, Devon, England in 1844, Cause: Senile decay, Death certified by Charles Mortimore WOOLDRIDGE, Postmaster, Widgemooltha, Reg: 20/1916 Coolgardie, Buried at Widgemooltha Cemetery.
William. Whitfield Mills arrived in South Australia from England aboard the Atlanta on the 15th of April 1866 aged 22yrs. On the 24th of March 1879, he married Mary Jane MULLEN, daughter of John Mullen (Mine Owner) and Mary KELLY at Christchurch, Kapunda, South Australia.
The couple had two daughters, Alice Thornton, born 1881 and Ethel May, born 1885 both in South Australia. William’s wife, Mary Jane died at Kapunda. In October 1888, age 30, their two young daughters were brought up in South Australia by their grandfather and two maiden aunts.
William Whitfield MILLS – Photo State Library of SA
In 1870, the South Australian Government began to construct a telegraph line from the existing line at Port Augusta to Darwin NT, spanning the Australian continent, a distance of almost 2000 miles. This was to connect with an undersea cable that would link Australia to the world.
Plaque on the Grave of W W Mills- Widgemooltha Cemetery WA – Photo Find a Grave
Tenders were called for sections of the line and Charles Todd, after whom the Todd River was named, and who was later the South Australian Postmaster General, then Superintendent of Telegraphs, divided the government share of the proposed Overland Telegraph into five sections and placed each under a competent surveyor. One of these men was W W Mills. He was in charge of subsection ‘C’, the overland Telegraph line (1870-1872).
The line was originally constructed through Fen Gap West, Temple Bar Gap and along the Larapinta Valley to a repeater station at Alice Springs, the site being chosen and named by Mills after Todd’s wife. Surveyor Mills is credited with discovering. Heavitree Gap, where the Todd River runs through the MacDonell Ranges, this was after his old school in Devon, England. He also named two gaps at Alice Springs, Emily and Jesse. He however is best know for naming a waterhole in Central Australia, Alice Spring, from which the town of Alice Springs now takes its name. Mills Street in East Side in Alice Springs is named after him.
Grave of W W Mills- Widgemooltha Cemetery WA – Photo Find a Grave
After completion of the telegraph line, Mills returned to the Northern Territory to work in mining and undertake further surveying. In the early 1880s, he managed a camel transport company carrying freight from Farina to Peake and Charlotte Waters. He delivered 30 camels from Beltana Station to Northampton WA for Sir Thomas Elder. He went across the centre of Australia on the Canning Stock Route before heading to Northampton. They went for long periods without water, but after 25 weeks, completed the journey.
Before falling on hard times, William spent the last years of his life in Widgemooltha WA, by all accounts, alone and in ill health.
Alice Springs – Stuart TRAYNOR came to Heavitree to share his research focusing on the role of Devon-born William Whitfield Mills in the naming of Alice Springs and, of course, the famous Heavitree Gap through the MacDonnell ranges. Born in Plymouth, surveyor W. W. Mills came to be acknowledged by his contemporaries as an accomplished bushman. He named Heavitree Gap for a school he attended here.
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