The Australian Boot Company
1908
1918
1923
Aged just 15, RM packs a bag and abandons the urban landscape in favour of a life in the outback.
"Life, as I came to know it, revolved round feeding the horses, preparing them for work and making the implements they were to haul."
1920s/30s
“The Australian stockmen recognised me as one of their own. My story was their story, a camel man, stockman, well sinker, workmate.”
RM embraced everything the Australian bush had to offer, working countless jobs and travelling far and wide. His career saw him work as a lime burner, camel driver and manual labourer, among a range of other occupations.
When the Great Depression hit and work dried up, RM headed back to Adelaide in hope of finding employment. He met and married Thelma Cummings and began a family, but he wanted to leave the city again.
1932
R.M.Williams is Established
Having learned leather working skills from a passing horseman known as Dollar Mick in the Flinders Ranges, RM resolves to try his hand at producing leather goods. His first success comes by selling saddles to the owner of a group of cattle stations, which enables RM to set up shop in his father’s shed at 5 Percy Street in the Adelaide suburb of Prospect in 1934. This location, still one of our retail outlets, now hosts the R.M.Williams Outback Heritage Museum.
The R.M.Williams company grows apace, developing a reputation across South Australia and beyond for our high quality products. The company is producing a wide range of leather goods, but is finding particular success with its range of riding boots.
The feature that sets RM’s boots apart from competitors stems from his aptitude for leather work. The upper of the boots is constructed using a single piece of leather, a method that enhances durability and creates a timeless, clean look. This production technique remains a staple of R.M.Williams styles today.
Any financial worries RM has about the long-term viability of his leather work business is calmed by a stroke of incredible luck when he buys a small mine and strikes gold – literally.
“I used to stagger down the street to the bank with these bags of gold, a shotgun each side, and thinking I was pretty important.”
1940s/50s
The company’s success continues, expanding into hats and clothing inspired by the outback and the bushmen who work on the land. Boots, however, remain the company’s staple.
During this time, RM remarries, and once and for all bids farewell to city life, selling the former Governor’s mansion he had been living in and moving to a derelict property he named Rockybar in Queensland. Rockybar becomes a great source of pride for RM, and over the next five decades he restores it to a working property as well as a beloved family home.
1960s
1970s - Expansion
The production workshop moves from Percy Street to its current location, the northern Adelaide suburb of Salisbury. The first R.M.Williams retail locations outside of Adelaide open in Toowoomba in 1978, followed by more stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
1980s
“If you make something good, people will make a track to your door. We made simple things that people wanted and kept them simple.”
RM gradually begins to step back from the business, but still remains an invaluable source of information on everything from leather working to retaining the brand’s trademark ruggedness and dedication to individuality.
In 1988 RM sells the business and in 1989 the first London store opens.
1990s
2000s
2013
2016
The Adelaide is inspired in part by the equestrian Wimmera boot created some 20 years previously as the definitive women’s Jodhpur boot. The Adelaide provides women with a lighter, more elegant alternative to the Craftsman.
The business moves strongly into best practice e-Commerce, to help expand its global sales of footwear and leather craft for which demand continues to grow internationally.
2020
Both R.M.Williams and Tattarang have roots deeply ingrained within the Australian outback and those who work it. Values of family, courage, determination and undeniable character are at the core of both companies.