Having lived and worked among Pacific Islands and Islanders as a trader, ship's supercargo, and villager for some two decades, learning languages and observing natural and cultural life, Becke was prompted by J F Archibald of The Bulletin to write down his experiences, eventually becoming a popular and respected author of short stories, novellas, novels, as well as historic and ethnographic works.

However, the family moved to Hunters Hill, Sydney in 1867 and Becke was further educated at Fort Street High School, although he still preferred to go fishing.

[2] Then he tried his luck at the Palmer River goldrush, was employed at Ravenswood station and from 1878–79 worked as a bank clerk in Townsville, Queensland.

From about April 1880 Becke was in the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) working with the Liverpool firm of John S. de Wolf and Co.[2] on Nanumanga,[4] until the trading-station was destroyed later that year in a cyclone.

[1] In January 1892 Becke returned to Sydney and persuaded by Ernest Favenc and J. F. Archibald began to contribute stories to The Bulletin, the first of which was 'Tis in the Blood appearing in the edition of 6 May 1893.

Becke was fairly paid by the magazines for his stories, but his books were always sold outright and never on a royalty basis, he was not a wealthy man.

[1] His writings were of variable quality, but have been compared to Rudyard Kipling, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson.

About 30 of Becke's books are listed in E. Morris Miller's Australian Literature with six other volumes written in collaboration with Walter J. Jeffrey.

Becke had said that any literary success he had achieved was due entirely to the training received from the editor of The Bulletin, J. F. Archibald, "who taught me the secrets of condensation and simplicity of language"[11][8] Once having learned this, Becke had a wealth of experience to draw upon and, though there was inevitably some monotony of theme, he wrote a very large number of stories that can still be read with interest, and show him to have been a writer of considerable ability.

[14] His life was the subject of a 1958 ABC radio feature Becke Of The South Seas where the author was played by Bob Moore.