Frank Backhouse

Frank Herbert Backhouse (1863 –1933 ) was a mining engineer during the Western Australian gold rushes of the 1890s.

Early years Backhouse was born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1863. His father was Benjamin Backhouse, member of the New South Wales Legislative Council; his brother Alfred Paxton Backhouse was a judge of the District Court of New South Wales. He received commercial and scientific instruction at the Grammar School and The King's School, Sydney-based institutions which prepared students for university.

He matriculated in science at the University of Sydney, after which he was appointed assistant professor to Mr. W. A. Dixon, F.I.C., Professor of the Chair of Chemistry in the Sydney Technical College. For eighteen months he assisted Dixon in scientific research in the laboratory. His duties included delivering a course of lectures to the students of the college on metallurgy, and demonstration in the laboratory. Backhouse built his home Ithaca in 1897, as well as several other cottages, on land he acquired in Busselton. and by 1928 he was chairman of Ravensthorpe Hospital's board.

Death Backhouse died on 12 April 1933, in Bridgetown. His remains were interred in the Bridgetown cemetery.