The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Mueller, Baron Sir Ferdinand von
Mueller, Baron Sir Ferdinand von, K.C.M.G., M.D., Ph.D., F.R.S., son of the late Frederick Mueller, of Rostock, Germany, and Louisa his wife, daughter of George Mertens, of Aschersleben, was born at Rostock in 1825, and was educated, after the early death of his parents, in Schleswig. He studied in Kiel, and devoted much time to the study of the flora of Schleswig and Holstein from 1840 to 1847, when he emigrated to Australia. He travelled through the extensive territory of South Australia, employed in botanical researches, from 1848 till 1852, at his private expense. In 1852 he accepted the then newly created office of Government Botanist for Victoria, explored there till 1855, examining also the whole alpine vegetation of Australia, which was previously utterly unknown; he ascended and named Mount Hotham, the Barkly ranges, and many other mountains, and joined as phytographic naturalist the expedition sent out under Augustus Gregory, by the Duke of Newcastle, to explore the river Victoria and other portions of the north parts of the Australian continent. He was one of the four who reached Termination Lake in 1856, and accompanied Gregory's expedition overland to Moreton Bay. He accepted the directorship of the Botanical Gardens of Melbourne in 1857, which office he held till 1873, raising that institution to high repute and establishing scientific relations with all parts of the globe, in order to introduce useful and rare plants into the colony, and to make known Australian plants abroad. He was one of the Commissioners for the Industrial Exhibitions in Melbourne in 1854, 1862, and 1867; and has issued eleven volumes of his "Fragmenta Phytographica Australiæ," two volumes on the "Plants of Victoria," and others on the Eucalyptus, Myoporinæ, Acacias, and Salsolaceæ, all largely illustrated, irrespective of many other publications. He co-operated in the elaboration of Bentham's "Flora Australiensis," of which seven volumes have appeared. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1861, and is a member of numerous foreign orders, besides being created a hereditary baron by the King of Wurtemberg in 1871. He has persistently and effectually promoted geographic research in Australian territory. The Baron still continues his researches in Melbourne. In 1879 he had conferred on him the Knight Commandership of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, of which he had been appointed a Companion in 1869. In 1888 he was the recipient of one of the royal medals of the Royal Society of London. The Baron is corresponding member of over a hundred and fifty scientific societies, including many academies in various parts of the world.