Benjamin Herschel Babbage (6 August 1815 – 22 October 1878) was an English engineer, scientist, explorer and politician, best known for his work in the colony of South Australia.

[1] At the age of 18, Babbage became a pupil of the engineer and architect William Chadwell Mylne, with whom he worked on waterworks projects.

[4] He said that he had "met with considerable opposition to the application of the Public Health Act to this town, from a large number of the inhabitants, upon the ground of the supposed expense of carrying out the sanitary reforms which I found to be so much needed."

[8] In January 1853 he was appointed Chief Engineer by the company undertaking the railway from Port Adelaide to the city.

[15] On 15 June 1858 near Pernatty Creek he discovered the remains of William Coulthard of Angas Park, Nuriootpa, who had died of thirst around 10 March 1858.

Babbage complained of unfair treatment and petitioned the House of Assembly to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.

[20] He announced his candidature for the 1877 Legislative Council elections but refused to participate in any public meetings and did not go to the polls.

His last years were spent building a mansion near South Road, St Mary's, where he had an excellent vineyard and was a keen winemaker (nine varieties on 25 acres in 1878[23]).

Among their children were Charles Whitmore Babbage (1842 – 17 August 1923), their eldest son, was a prize-winning student at Adelaide Educational Institution 1853–58.

While working as a teller with the Bank of Adelaide he started speculating on the Stock Exchange and losing money.

On 1 July 1876 he was charged with embezzling £1616, and in September was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for that and passing a fraudulent cheque.

An employee of the Bank of Australasia from 1860, he was transferred to Sale, Victoria in 1877 then promoted to manager of the branch at Wanganui, New Zealand,[46] followed by successively more responsible posts until his retirement in 1906 at his home "Rawhiti" on Clanville Road, Roseville, New South Wales, where he was active as councillor and president of the Progress Association.

[52] Herschel, while protective of his less able younger brother, despaired of his propensity to mix with social inferiors and his fondness for drink.