Obituaries Australia

William Bullivant, n.d.

from Australasian Pastoralists' Review, 15 February 1901

Mr. William Hose Bullivant was born at Ashwell in the county of Rutland, England, in 1833, but he did not come to this country for over thirty years after that date. He was an only child and carried on the same business as his father, which was that of a farmer, and before coming out here sold the last of what had once been a fine estate near Wymondham, in Leicestershire, which had been in his family for many generations. He married in 1864 the eldest daughter of Mr. James Austin, of Glastonbury Abbey, Somersetshire, and two years after came to Victoria. Since then he has been engaged in pastoral pursuits, living principally at Avalon, near Geelong, Barwon Park, Winchelsea, and for the last thirteen years at Yeo, near Colac. He bought in 1878 the Longerenong Estate, and has owned it ever since. He was well known as a member of the Australian Sheepbreeders' Association, of which he has been president, and at whose shows he has been a successful prize-taker with the Longerenong sheep for many years, his flock holding its own with those of the best breeders in the colonies.

Wherever Mr. Bullivant has lived he has taken an active part in public matters, having been president of the Lara, Winchelsea and Colac shire councils at different times, and at the time of his death he was a member of the Colac Shire Council, and representative for the Colac church at the Ballarat Church Assembly. He had been a magistrate for over thirty years, and had been a member of the Melbourne Club for some years. At the time of the first inception of the volunteer movement in England more than forty-five years since, he held the commission of lieutenant in the first corps formed at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, but resigned it it on coming out to Victoria.

Mr. Bullivant was always a most active man, but had not had his usual health for the last two years. In August last he lost the sight of one eye, and his health gave his family cause for anxiety. About Christmas he became much worse, but it was hoped even then he might be partially restored to health, but he did not improve, and died at "Katandra," South Yarra, on the 24th January, 1901, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.