William Walkley

Sir William Gaston Walkley, born 1 November 1896 in Otaki, New Zealand, and died 12 April 1976 in Manly, Australia, was a dual Australian and New Zealand businessman regarded as a founder of the Australian oil company Ampol and an early pioneer of oil exploration in northwest Australia. In 1935 he and William Arthur O'Callaghan lobbied the National Roads and Motorists' Association in New South Wales to adopt a service-station model like one used in Europe, leading to Ampol's establishment, and he served as the company's managing director from 1939 until his retirement in 1963. In 1956 he separately founded the Walkley Awards, which became Australian journalism's premier honor. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/