Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, Baron FRS KCMG PhD

German-Australian physician, Geographer and Botanist. Arrived at Adelaide 18 December 1847.

http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000663b.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Mueller

A number of geographical features were named after Mueller: the Mueller Ranges (Western Australia), Muellers Range (Queensland), Mount Mueller (in WA, Northern Territory, Tasmania and Victoria) and Mount von Mueller (WA), Muellers Peak (New South Wales), the Mueller River (Vic), Muellers Creek (South Australia) and Mueller Creek (NT), Lake Mueller(Qld), and Mueller hut near the Mueller Glacier in New Zealand. Mueller Park, Subiaco (WA) is also named after him. A Victorian Railways diesel-electric locomotive S311 is named after Mueller.

He was born in Rostock, Germany. He was apprenticed as a chemist and passed the exams. He studied botany at Kiel under Professor Nolte. In 1847 he was awarded his doctorate for his thesis on the flora of Schleswig-Holstein. He was advised to move to a warmer climate, and in 1847 he and his two sisters sailed to Australia, arriving in Adelaide, South Australia.

He moved to Victoria and in 1853 he was appointed Government Botanist for Victoria, and in this year he established the National Herbarium of Victoria. He studied the alpine plants of Victoria, but von Mueller was an active explorer, and also explored parts the Northern Territory and Moreton Bay. He found over 800 plant species new to Australia.

From 1857 to 1873 he was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.

He received many honours, including being made a K.C.M.G. in 1879. In 1871 King Karl of Wurttemberg and Queen Olga gave him the hereditary title of Freiherr.

von Mueller died in Melbourne and is buried in the St Kilda Cemetery.

References and Links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_von_Mueller
• http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/mueller.ferdinand.html
• http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050353b.htm
• http://www.pacsoa.org.au/places/People/mueller.html
• http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/projects/history-of-science/muell...
• http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000663b.htm