The Ararat Advertiser on 1 August 1905 wrote that the township’s name had been altered from Wickliffe Road to Willaura, but the origins of the name are a little unclear. According the ‘The History of Willaura and District 1835-1985’ several versions exist.
The head teacher at the Wickliffe Road School until his retirement in 1907, was Mr FW Ellis and he wrote the following. “As correspondence for Wickliffe Road was constantly being missent to Wickliffe, the PMGs Department asked the residents to submit another name for their township. A meeting of residents was held and three names were suggested – ‘Wheatville’…’Lignum’…and ‘Willaura’…which I think I suggested… The name was given to the surveyor of the parish of Willaura many years before the residents chose it as the name of their town…” According to Mr Ellis the surveyor coined the name in relation to one of the women in his party, Laura, after someone asked, “Will Laura or Helen do it?” (This also explains the name of nearby settlement Helendoit).
However, noted historian Les Blake wrote: “Willaura – Parish, County of Ripon, township near Hopkins River, southwest of Ararat, reputedly surveyor combined his children’s names – William and Laura, township proclaimed in 1911, earlier known as Wickliffe Road.”
Yet another suggestion regarding the origin of ‘Willaura’ comes from Dr Inga Clendinnen, who presented a Boyer Lecture on ABC Radio on 28 November 1999, entitled ‘Back to the Past: Victoria 1841; Arnhem Land 1937-7’. In it she related comments by Mr George Augustus Robertson, Chief Protector to the Aborigines for the District (Port Phillip). He travelled through the region in 1841 and wrote to the people he encountered from the ‘Wol-lore-rer Tribe’. Whether this name is merely similar to Willaura, or in fact is where the surveyor gained his inspiration perhaps warrants further research. Certainly, the coincidence is striking.
Ref – The History of Willaura and District 1835-1985
Middlemarsh, by Rod Giblett