Sarah Theresa Brooks was born on 19 September 1850, on board the ship Harpley,[1] at Plymouth, England, before sailing to Australia.

[4] The Brooks family resided in Victoria until 1873, when Sarah's brother, John moved to Western Australia, to pursue an opportunity to own land, and she and her mother followed shortly after in 1874.

[5] It was during this time that Sarah Brooks responded to an advertisement in the West Australian newspaper for people to collect botanical specimens for Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller.

[6] She collected plant specimens from Israelite Bay between 1883 and 1893, and from various locations in Western Australia including Hampton Range (1890), Mt Ragged (1886), Pine Hill, Balbinia and the edge of the Nullarbor Plain.

[6][7] Sarah Brooks eventually settled at Balbinia Station near Esperance in 1898, after her house at Israelite Bay burned down.