[1] Willis ran unsuccessfully for Bourke in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1887, but won it as a Protectionist in 1889 and held it to 1894.
He had become a supplier of horses and fodder to the British Army in South Africa and he recruited Australian bushmen as scouts and sharpshooters during the Boer War.
[1] John Haynes constantly accused Willis and Paddy Crick of corrupt land deals in the Newsletter.
On the appointment of a Royal Commission under William Owen to investigate the administration of the Lands Department in 1905, Willis fled to Western Australia and South Africa.
[1] He was brought back to Sydney in 1906, but although tried twice for obtaining money by false pretences, fraud and conspiracy, the juries failed to agree on a verdict.