Mulga Fred Wilson

Mulga Fred Wilson (c. 1874 – 2 November 1948) was an Australian Aboriginal stockman and buck-jump rider, known as Mulga Fred. He was the star attraction of various touring rodeo shows in the decade before the First World War. Wilson is considered to be the first Aboriginal actor to appear in a motion picture for his role in the film Bushranger's Ransom, or A Ride for Life, completed in 1911. By the 1920s Wilson was leading an itinerant lifestyle, mainly throughout the western districts of Victoria, with occasional visits to the urban centres of Melbourne and Geelong. He was a well-known character in western Victoria where he attended agricultural shows and football games, demonstrating his skills with the stockwhip and the boomerang, as well as his abilities as a buck-jump rider. He also worked as a horse-breaker and station-hand throughout his life. Mulga Fred died in November 1948 at Horsham railway station, aged about 74 years, from injuries received when he was hit by a train. There was a wide-spread belief that Wilson had been the original model for images of an Aboriginal man, known as 'Pelaco Bill', featured in advertisements for the Pelaco company, a Melbourne-based shirt manufacturer.