Tom Wills

Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being the country's first cricketer of significance and a pioneer of Australian rules football.

Born in the British colony of New South Wales to a wealthy family descended from convicts, Wills grew up in the bush on properties owned by his father, the pastoralist and politician Horatio Wills, in what is now the Australian state of Victoria. He befriended, and learned the language of, local Aborigines. At the age of 14, Wills was sent to England to attend Rugby School, where he became captain of its cricket team, and played an early version of rugby football. After Rugby, Wills represented the Cambridge University Cricket Club in the annual match against Oxford, and played in first-class matches for Kent and the Marylebone Cricket Club. An athletic all-rounder with devastating bowling analyses, he was regarded as one of the finest young cricketers in England.

Returning to Victoria in 1856, Wills achieved Australia-wide stardom as a cricketer, captaining the Victorian team to repeated victories in intercolonial matches. He played for many clubs, most notably the Melbourne Cricket Club, with which he had a tumultuous relationship. In 1858 he called for the formation of a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during the off-season. After founding the Melbourne Football Club the following year, Wills and three other members codified the first laws of Australian rules football. He and his cousin H. C. A. Harrison spearheaded the sport as players and administrators.

Mick Thomas

Michael James Thomas (born 7 February 1960, Yallourn) is an Australian singer-songwriter, producer, guitarist and hotelier. Thomas was the founding mainstay of a folk rock group, Weddings Parties Anything (1984–1998), and leader of Mick Thomas and the Sure Thing. He has also released material as a solo artist.

Biography

Michael James Thomas was born in Yallourn on 7 February 1960 and is the middle child of three. His older brother, Steve, was later a playwright. Their father, Brian Darvall Thomas (2 February 1925 – 12 September 2003), was a World War II naval veteran (23 April 1942 – 17 July 1946) and an electrical engineer with the State Electricity Commission. Brian's family were from Tasmania and his wife, Margaret, was from northern Victoria. They met in Melbourne after Brian returned from his war service.

The family moved with Brian's work, from Gippsland to Colac, Horsham and then Geelong. When Thomas was 15, in Geelong, he started playing folk music, initially as a solo artist. He was a member of Southern Aurora, and from 1978 to 1980 in Never Never Band which issued an independent single, "It Doesn't Mean Anything". Other members of Never Never Band were Brolga, Archie Cuthbertson on drums, Wendy Harrison on bass guitar, and Joe Nadoh on guitar. In 1981 (at age 21) he moved to Melbourne where he fronted a 1960s pop revival group, The Acrobats, from 1982 to 1983. He attended university and completed an arts degree, with majors in history, literature and sociology. With Cuthbertson other members of The Acrobats were David Adams on drums, Joe Colarazo, and Chris Dyson. He spent two years in the local pub rock scene first in 1983 in Where's Wolfgang with Adams and Dyson joined by Shane Day; and then in 1984 in Trial.