Wilson is considered to be the first Aboriginal actor to appear in a motion picture for his role in the film Bushranger's Ransom, or A Ride for Life, completed in 1911.

He was a well-known character in western Victoria where he attended agricultural shows and football games, demonstrating his skills with the stockwhip and the boomerang, as well as his abilities as a buck-jump rider.

Mulga Fred died in November 1948 at Horsham railway station, aged about 74 years, from injuries received when he was hit by a train.

There was a wide-spread belief that Wilson had been the original model for images of an Aboriginal man, known as 'Pelaco Bill', featured in advertisements for the Pelaco company, a Melbourne-based shirt manufacturer.

Fred Wilson was born in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, in the district near present-day Port Hedland, on the traditional lands of the indigenous Nyamal, Kariyarra and Ngarla people.

[1] Wilson joined Jack Noble's party of drovers to move ten thousand cattle from the Pilbara region to the Murchison district.

At one of Broncho George's shows at Kadina, on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, Mulga Fred's horse-riding skills were praised and it was noted that he "amused the audience muchly during the evening".

[12] In April 1909 at the Agricultural Show at Westbury, in the central north of Tasmania, Mulga Fred gave 'an exhibition of steer riding [which] greatly amused the spectators".

Fred was brought before the Devonport Police Court on July 5, where he pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay ten shillings for the cost of the medical attendant.

[16] Mulga Fred Wilson appeared as a cast member in a motion picture called Bushranger's Ransom, or A Ride for Life, produced by Pathé Frères' and released in March 1911.

[20] In March 1911 Mulga Fred rode in a buck-jumping contest at the Doncaster and Box Hill Horticultural Association Show in Victoria, north-east of Melbourne.

[22] At the Alfred Hospital Bazaar in April 1911, Mulga Fred was one of four rough riders who entertained the crowd by engaging in "the thrilling performance of riding unbroken horses and wild bullocks".

[29][30] In June 1915 Wilson was charged with "obstruction of the footpath" and spent a night in gaol after he attracted a crowd in Bourke Street in Melbourne by demonstrating fire-making skills "by twirling one stick on another in the old bush way".

[33] In August 1916, in announcing details for the "patriotic carnival and soldiers' day" at Traynor's Lagoon near St. Arnaud, it was reported that the "services of Mulga Fred... have been secured, and he will give an exhibition of rough riding, cracking the stock whip, and boomerang throwing".

[35] In December 1917 Wilson participated in a patriotic sports day at Prooinga, near Swan Hill on the Murray River, where he exhibited "buck jumping, boomerang throwing and whip cracking".

[36] In September 1918 it was reported that Mulga Fred "is gaining quite a notoriety in Ultima" (in the Swan Hill district), after he "was again locked up... on a charge of being drunk and disorderly".

[38] In September 1921 during a stopover on King Island (on their way from Melbourne to Launceston), Wilson and a man named Joe Career (described as a Tasmanian half-caste) entertained the residents of Currie.

Mulga Fred gave an exhibition of whip-cracking "using a couple of whips, frequently together, with remarkable precision, and at times to the considerable temerity of the inevitable small boy who held pieces of paper for him".

Mulga Steve "dexterously whipped the ash from Combo's cigarette" in a performance that "caused disturbance in the neighbourhood, and drew a crowd that threatened to hinder traffic".

[46] In September 1924 Wilson, "an aboriginal well-known around the city streets", was engaged in a buck-jumping display at Wirth's Park when he was thrown heavily after the breast-strap broke.

[56] At a rodeo at Naracoorte in April 1934 Mulga Fred was "giving a display of buckjump riding on his own initiative", when he was thrown and received a deep wound on his arm when the horse trod on him.

When questioned Wilson explained that he had "been brought from the country" to participate in "the Wild Australia Stampede at the Centenary celebrations, but when the enterprise failed he was left stranded".

When he appeared before the Geelong Police Court Mulga Fred told the magistrate he "believes that as a blackfellow living in a free country he is entitled to travel on the railways without a ticket".

[63] In May 1936 the Clerk of Courts at Nhill, Percy Biggin, wrote to the Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines requesting the old age pension for Mulga Fred.

Biggin described Wilson as being "well known and popular throughout Victoria"; he was "a fairly good type, as aborigines go [who] occasionally allows himself to become the worse for drink, but he is never offensive".

[69][70] Mulga Fred Wilson died in the early hours of 2 November 1948 when he was struck by a train at Horsham station in the Wimmera district of western Victoria.

[72] On November 23 the Horsham Times reported that "several local enthusiasts have organised a small appeal to place a headstone on the grave of Mulga Fred".

[74] When Mulga Fred Wilson died in November 1948 a number of newspapers throughout Australia reported that he had been the original model for well-known advertisements for Pelaco shirts featuring the image of a smiling Aboriginal man known as 'Pelaco Bill'.

The image became a company icon known as 'Pelaco Bill', often accompanied by the slogan "Mine tinkit they fit", which featured in advertisements in dozens of variations produced until the end of the 1940s.

[78][79] The complicated question of whether Mulga Fred was the model for Mockridge's original drawing, the prototype for the subsequent 'Pelaco Bill' advertising, has been explored by the historian Richard Broome.