William Chandos Wall (27 November 1845 – 1 July 1926) was an Australian politician. He was also a prospector, geologist, minerals surveyor, commission / mining agent, inventor and a quarry and mine operator before and after entering politics. In June 1886 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly to succeed the former NSW premier Sir John Robertson KCMG as one of the members for Mudgee. In 1894 Wall transferred to Rylstone and in July 1895 he lost the Rylstone seat.
Parliamentary career
William Chandos Wall was a 'liberal' Protectionist member in the NSW Parliaments from the 12th to the 16th inclusive (under the Jennings, Parkes, Dibbs and Reid Governments). After representing Mudgee in four Parliaments, he served only one term for Rylstone, and was defeated by the Free-Trade candidate, John Charles Lucas Fitzpatrick, in the elections for the 17th parliament in 1895. The first result for the 1895 election in Rylstone, held on 24 July, was disputed. A by-election was then held on 14 October 1895 and although Fitzpatrick was again returned, it appeared that Wall was correct in his assertion that the original count was irregular. (The Elections and Qualifications Committee in its re-count of the July election, excluded 256 of the 1028 votes cast). Although voting was not compulsory and the electorate was relatively small, the 1895 by-election in Rylstone was hotly contested. 1028 votes (54.6% of eligible voters) were counted in the July election and 1309 (69.55% of eligible voters) in the by-election held on Monday 14 October 1895. In this context, the 1895 Rylstone election was seen as a public scandal and was subject to an investigation and Report to the NSW Parliament.
Wall stood in the 1898 NSW State Election for the seat of Botany, but polled only 2.3% of the vote. He was a supporter for Federation which in the 1898 NSW Referendum had failed to reach the 80,000 'yes' votes necessary to proceed. A second NSW Referendum in 1899 polled 107,420 to 82,741 and the enabling legislation was passed by the UK Parliament in July 1900. Wall also stood in the 1902 by-election for the seat of Inverell as an Independent Federalist obtaining 26.5% of the vote, but finished third behind the Labor Party candidate, George Alfred Jones, who won 37.7%. In 1903, he stood as a Protectionist candidate for the national Parliament in the (Federal) seat of Robertson. He was defeated by Henry Willis (Free-Trade). The Protectionist Party was in decline at this time and would merge with the Anti-Socialist Party in May 1909. Again in 1907 Wall stood as an independent for the NSW State seat of Mudgee, but polled only 3.7% of the votes cast. It seems that after the 1907 defeat, he gave up his attempts to re-enter parliament.
The (pro-Protectionist) Bulletin Weekly of 12 October 1916 said:
"Though unheard of in politics these days W. C. Wall once loomed large on the New South Wales horizon. It used to be said that he had only to send his old boots up to Rylstone to secure his return on polling day." This claim (it actually was about sending his old boots up to Wollar) was ascribed to Wall as part of what appeared to be a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign around the 1895 election. It offended the Wollar voters and he lost a substantial number of their 90 votes. This led to his 1895 defeat. Similarly in the 1907 NSW Election, this story was again used against him. He denied it and challenged the proponents to prove it. No proof was ever offered.
Mining activity
William Chandos took out 2 mining leases in July 1884 (the year of his marriage and the year that first train arrived in Mudgee on 10 September 1884) in Gulgong and several more there in 1886 and 1887. This was a pattern of mining activity in which he was active most of his life. He appears to have been a knowledgeable geologist and over his long career prospected for or mined: antimony (at Moolarben – 20 Km NE of Crossroads, Mudgee), gold, iron at Cooyal and Tallawang, tin and tungsten (Ardlethan and Yalgogrin, NSW), coal and kerosene shale (Megalong Valley), limestone, dolomite and gypsum (at Wall's Mt. Knowles quarries).