Louis Becke was considered the ‘Rudyard Kipling of the Pacific’.
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He was a sailor, blackbirder, trader, smuggler, pearler, whaler, stockman, worldly traveller and unsung Australian author at the end of his days to name a few of his vocations.
And he was born in Port Macquarie.
The youngest of six children, George Lewis Becke was born in 1855.
To share and honour the colourful life and travels of one of Port Macquarie’s least talked about characters, plans are in play to formally acknowledge Becke and his story as a part of the Hastings’ bicentenary celebrations.
History lover and Becke aficionado, Glenn Dick is partnering with the Bicentenary Working Group on the best way to share Becke’s life tales and embed his name into the narrative underpinning our local history.
“There is a park at the back of the Maritime cottage which could be named in his honour, or an area on the headland which was his stomping ground as a kid,” Mr Dick said.
“Becke lived a fabulous lifestyle travelling the south seas over a 20 year period. He was an adventurer and he challenged things.
“We are proposing that council name a street, or a laneway or a park after him. We’d also like to establish a writer’s event similar to the Henry Lawson Festival, to bring writers and lovers of history to Port Macquarie.
“Becke’s father was the clerk of petty sessions - dedicating a room or two at the old historic courthouse in Port Macquarie for his written collections would be wonderful.
“This will enrich the cultural and historic significance of Port Macquarie and our early connections to the grand Pacific.
“A number of his characters and plots are based on his recollections of the old Port Macquarie, and tend to be autobiographical. He referred to his old town as “Lots ‘o’ time”, a place going nowhere, where time stood still after the convict era.”
Forty years ago, Hastings Council did recognise Louis Becke by naming a street in his honour in Westport.
Before the age of 10, Becke sailed on his family’s 60 tonne ketch to Lord Howe Island and his love of the high seas was declared.
Becke always dreamt of being a pirate and at the age of 14, embarked with his older brother Vernon to the USA on the “Lizzie and Rosa”.
He used his savings to buy a share in a trading ship, cruising the Marshall Islands for several years and in 1871 returned to Australia, aged 16.
He married Mary Elizabeth Maunsell, the daughter if Colonel Maunsell, in Port Macquarie in 1886 with their first child Nora Lois born in 1888.
Becke wrote his first story, Tis In The Blood, in 1893 with his first book, By Reef and Palm, published in 1894.
In 1896 he left for Britain and had two more children to Miss Fanny Sabina-Long.
He met Edmund Barton in London in 1900 and live in Ireland before travelling to the United States, Canada and Jamaica.
He divorced Mary Becke in 1903 and lived in northern France while travelling the south seas, before returning to Australia in 1909.
Becke was elected the a Member of the Royal Society of NSW in 1910 and died at the age of 40 at the York Hotel in Sydney in 1913.
His last books, Bully Hayes and Buccaneer were published posthumously.
Anyone wanting to be a part of the plan to honour Louis Becke can contact Glenn Dick on 0411840940.