Ludwig Becker (explorer)

After some time in England he travelled from Liverpool in November 1850 on the ship Hannah via Pernambuco, Brazil,[2] and arrived in Launceston, Van Diemen's Land, in early 1851.

He was described by Lady Denison as "one of those universal geniuses who can do anything ... a very good naturalist, geologist ... draws and plays and sings, conjures and ventriloquises and imitates the notes of birds so accurately".

[This quote needs a citation] From 1852 until 1854, while mining for gold in Bendigo, Becker made meteorological observations and produced sketches which he exhibited in Melbourne in April 1854.

Becker, as artist, naturalist and geologist on a salary of £300, received lengthy instructions from Doctor John Macadam, honorary secretary of the Exploration Committee, which stipulated that he should collect specimens, keep a diary and produce daily maps with illustrations and sections.

The Commission of Enquiry into the causes of the deaths of Burke and Wills also found from the expedition's surgeon, Dr Hermann Beckler's evidence, that Becker died of dysentery and the exhaustion consequent upon it; of course with some peculiar symptoms, which were principally owing to the scurvy.

Governor Barkly paid tribute to "one of the earliest and most indefatigable contributors ... the name of Ludwig Becker will ... rank with those of Cunningham, Kennedy and Leichhardt and the rest of that noble band who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of science.

"[This quote needs a citation] The City of Ballarat commemorated the expedition with a clock tower in 1863 referring to the deaths of "The Victorian Explorers Burke, Wills, Gray and Becker".