Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Müller was born in Rostock, Germany. Müller was a qualified pharmacist who then studied medicine but abandoned this due to his health. In 1847 he emigrated to Australia where he collected plants for research. He wrote an 11 volume bookPlants in Australia (1855-1881).

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 Many of Australia’s native plants were sent overseas by Müller to chemists so that their curative properties might be investigated. He wrote and lectured on medical and poisonous plants, stressed the commercial importance of eucalyptus oil, and wrote extensively onCinchona calisaya, from which quinine is prepared. He was appointed Director of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens and became a medical examiner for the University of Sydney. He received 184 civil and scientific honours during his life. For his contribution to biological science he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine Honoris Causa in 1857 by the University of Rostock.

 Philatelically Australia honoured him on a stamp issued in 1948. His portrait is shown with a sprig of the gum that bears his name,Eucalyptus muelleriana. (Stanley Gibbons 226, Scott 214).