On this day in 1850 Benjamin Herschel Babbage travelled to Haworth to examine the sanitary condition of the village on behalf of the General Board of Health.

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. He invariably signed his name "B. Herschel Babbage" and was frequently referred to as "Herschel Babbage"
In 1850, Babbage was invited by Patrick Brontë (clergyman and father of the Brontë sisters) to conduct an inspection in the West Yorkshiretown of Haworth, partly brought about by Haworth's high rate of early mortality.^[2] Babbage was horrified by the unsanitary conditions in the town, and The Babbage Report to the General Board of Health into the town's water supply and lack of a sewerage system resulted in the board taking notice and working to improve the town's sanitation.^[3] In 1851, the Colonial Secretary Earl Grey, on the recommendation of the geologist Sir Henry De la Beche, assigned Babbage to perform a geological and mineralogical survey of the colony of South Australia requested by the colony's government. Babbage arrived in South Australia on 27 November on the "Hydaspes",^[4] and over the next few years worked on a number of government projects, first setting up the Government Gold Assay Office in Victoria Square.^[5]

He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1852.^[6] In January 1853 he was appointed Chief Engineer by the company undertaking the railway from Port Adelaide to the city.^[7] In 1853, Babbage was one of the first five members of the Mitcham District Council, serving as the council's first chairman from 1855. A ward in the City of Mitcham was named after him.^[8] In 1854 he was elected to the Central Road Board.^[9] In 1855, Babbage served as President of the Adelaide Philosophical Society.^[10]

In 1857, Babbage was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly in the inaugural election in 1857, representing the electorate ofEncounter Bay. He resigned late in the year after being appointed to lead an expedition to explore the north of the colony between Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner.^[11] He was replaced by Henry Strangways in a by-election.^[1]

Babbage began his exploration of South Australia in 1856 when sent to search for gold up to the Flinders Ranges,^[12] during which time he discovered the MacDonnell River, Blanchewater and Mount Hopeful (renamed Mount Babbage after him in 1857 by George Goyder). Babbage also disproved the notion that Lake Torrens was a single horseshoe-shaped lake or inland sea, ascertaining a number of gaps in the lake, which were later traversed other explorers such as Augustus Gregory and Peter Warburton.^[11] 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.^[13] On 22 October 1858 he discovered Emerald Springs.^[14]

Babbage also discovered that Lake Eyre (sighted by Edward John Eyre in 1840) actually consisted of a large northern and a smaller southern lake. A peninsula on Lake Eyre North was named Babbage Peninsula in 1963.^[15]

As Babbage continued his explorations, sometimes accompanied by his son, Charles Whitmore Babbage,^[16] the government grew tired of his slow, methodical pace, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Francis Dutton, responded to the controversy by replacing him withPeter Warburton in 1858. Babbage complained of unfair treatment and petitioned the House of Assembly to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into the issue.^[17] A critically acclaimed book of his pen-and-ink sketches from this expedition is held by the Mortlock Library.^[16]

His last years were spent at his home on South Road, St Mary's, where he had an excellent vineyard and was a keen winemaker (nine varieties on 25 acres in 1878^[18]). 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.^[19]