Will is a graduate historian from the ANU in Canberra and holds a PhD from that university. He started work at the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1972, and worked at the BBC and in Hollywood in the 1970s before setting up his documentary production company LOOK FILM PRODUCTIONS in 1977, one of the most prolific documentary production companies during the period 1983-2003.
Documentaries
Between that time and his retirement in 2010, he made many documentaries, mainly for the ABC and SBS including:
- WHEN THE WAR CAME TO AUSTRALIA, a four-hour series for the ABC.
- TALES FROM A SUITCASE, 50 x half-hour episodes for SBS.
- OUR CENTURY is the major series of 25 half hours for the Nine Network presented by Ray Martin.
- RAILWAY ADVENTURES ACROSS AUSTRALIA for Channel 10.
- THE VOYAGE OF BOUNTY’S CHILD, ABC, BBC, PBS.
- THE HISTORY OF NORFOLK ISLAND, a four-film series presented by Dr Iain McCalman.
- DEATH AND DESTINY: A Journey into Ancient Egypt.
- Numerous corporate films over thirty years.
Authorship
He is the author of ten books including:
- Tales From a Suitcase (Lothian)
- Tales From a Suitcase: The Afghan Experience (Lothian)
- Fighting Masoud’s War (Lothian)
- Somme Mud (editor)(Random House Australia)
- In the Footsteps of Private Lynch (Random House Australia)
- Beneath Hill 60 (Random House Australia)
- In the Footsteps of our Fathers (SNP Security corporate history)
- The Boy Colonel (Random House Australia)
- The Last 100 Days (Penguin Random House Australia)
- Forgotten: The Chinese in the Great War (Wilkinson Publishing)
- Secret and Special: The untold story of the Z Special Unit in the Second World War (Penguin Random House Australia)