William Cross Yuille

William Cross Yuille (1819 – July 19, 1894) was an Australian who helped establish the horse racing industry in Victoria, Australia. The city of Ballarat, Victoria was founded around his stock station.

William Cross Yuille was educated in Glasgow and was apprenticed for three years in the West India house of Messrs Ewing and Co. of Glasgow. He sailed from Liverpool on 23 August 1836 aged 17 on the "Statesman" (345 tons), commanded by Captain Rowlett. The Ship landed in Hobart Town, Van Diemens Land on 9th December 1836. At that time there were glowing accounts of the new settlement of Port Phillip that were engaging to the attention of the Pastoralists of Van Diemens Land and William Cross, fired by his pioneer spirit and his youth, decided to cross to the ‘land of promise’.

WC Yuille sailed on the vessel 'Rajah'and landed at Point Henry, near Geelong,Victoria, on 27 February 1837with the intention of joining his cousin Archibald Buchanan Yuille. He and his cousin Archibald purchased 2200 well bred Merino sheep from Peter Murdoch, shipped them in the "John Dunscombe" in February 1837. Later in June 1837 there was an attack on the Yuille’s station by the Aborigines. William took possession of a run at Murgheboluc on the Barwon River near Inverleigh and in January 1838,. A small party made up of John Aitken, Henry Anderson, Thomas, Somerville, Learmonth and Yuille struck out North to search for J.T.Gellibrand and G.B.L.Hesse who had been lost in the bush and to search for new squatting lands. When they found Gellibrand and Hesse they had been murdered by the blacks. If they had received a Squatters License it may have come from Foster Fyans who was the Police Magistrate sent to the area by the request of the Cousins and other Squatters concerned with the troublesome natives.

Yuille was baptised on March 28, 1819 in Glasgow, Scotland. He married Marry Denny in Victoria on July 7, 1842. He died on 19 July 1894 in East Melbourne.