Baron von Mueller's name crops up again
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (385702)
Rockingham, Australia
August 6, 2026 8:27pm CST
Back in October 2025, I wrote about Mary Annie Adams (1874-1931) who lived at Mangowine Homestead, Western Australia, and collected plants for the renowned botanist, Baron von Mueller. Ferdinand von Mueller (1825 –1896) who was government botanist for Victoria in 1853. Von Mueller named a type of boronia, Boronia adamsiana, in recognition of Annie’s work.
While reading a book of history snippets from Esperance where we used to live, I came across the name Sarah Brooks (1850–1928) who spent much of her time at Israelite Bay near Esperance. Sarah had had a good education before moving to the very isolated Israelite Bay. She could draw and spoke three languages, the latter of little use to her in the middle of nowhere. After answering an advertisement, she collected plant specimens from nearby areas, forwarding them to von Mueller. She also collected algae and fungi for Jacob Georg Agardh of Lund University in Sweden. In Sarah’s case, two of the plants named after her were Scaevola brookeana and Hakea brookeana.
I wonder if I’ll come across a third person who collected for von Mueller.
The photo is from Wikimedia of a Scaevola brookeana and was taken by Geoff Derrin.
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8 responses
@JudyEv (385702)
• Rockingham, Australia
28m
This is from Wikipedia: The first European explorers of the area were Charles Dempster and his brother Andrew, who observed that the local Ngadju people practiced circumcision while the Noongar people to their west did not, thus marking a boundary between the two tribes and naming the area Israelite Bay after the Jewish tradition of circumcision.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (211683)
• United States
11h
I guess he is famous in the annals of OZ history
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@teamfreak16 (45223)
• Denver, Colorado
11h
It sounds like you have a decent chance of finding someone else!
Baron von Mueller sounds like a WWI fighter pilot's name. 
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@JudyEv (385702)
• Rockingham, Australia
32m
He does sound like a fighter pilot. He came out from Germany with his two sisters but I don't think he ever went back.
@JudyEv (385702)
• Rockingham, Australia
25m
At least she found a way to occupy her time. They had no neighbours nearby so they had to make their own amusement. It's good she found such a useful way to fill in her time.
