On 27 January 1857 the parents of Thomas Charles Wills, Thomas Wills, aged 22, and his wife Sarah (nee Davis), aged 28, arrived from Bovey Tracey, Devon, at Hobart Town on the migrant ship "Great Tasmania".

Thomas Charles Wills was born Feb. 24, 1862 at Spring Bay. In March 1886, aged 24, he married Mary Ann Dilger at Swansea she was then only 19 years old. He joined the Tasmanian Territorial Police in 1888 and was stationed at Derby until transferred to Cygnet.

In 1907 he retired from the police force and purchased an orchard property located on Guy's Road, known as 'Burnside'.

He and his wife raised a family of seven children.

With their help he worked the orchard until his death in 1927. It is believed that sons Bill and Mick built the large separate kitchen-laundry after they returned from the First World War. They also built the stable. The design of both was influenced by what they had seen in France during the war.