Bill has lived on a small property in the Adelaide Hills at Montacute since 1982. Bill is married to Erica Womersley and they have 3 adult sons. He has been a member of the local Montacute CFS Brigade for over 20 years and was honoured with life membership of the brigade at its 65th anniversary celebration in 2008.
He was elected to the Adelaide Hills Council in 2000 and has been re-elected with an increased vote at each of the subsequent council elections. In 2010 he was elected Mayor of the Adelaide Hills. Defeating two other worthy candidates for the position.
He has contested the Federal seat of Mayo as an independent candidate in 2001, 2008 and 2010.
In 1998 Bill achieved some notoriety, when he criticised the State Government over keeping secret the discovery of guardia in Adelaide's water supply. He featured on the front page of the Advertiser newspaper and appeared on the evening TV news.
Bill work for 9 years as a food scientist with several food processing companies in South Australia before joining the School of Food & Catering at Regency Park TAFE. He now works at TAFE SA, City Campus as a lecturer in information technology and has a BSc in Food Science, a Graduate Diploma in Adult Education, a Graduate Diploma in Computer and Information Science and a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration. In 2010 he commenced a Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems but defered the course on being elected Mayor.