Born in 1783, Von Bibra served in the Prussian army, the British army, and the Royal Corsican Rangers during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. He married Elizabeth Riley in 1807. (She died, after her return to England, in 1853.)
Von Bibra visited Van Diemen's Land in 1816, spending a year exploring. Upon his return to Europe he collaborated with C. N. Röding to write a book about the colony, published as Schilderung der Insel Van Diemensland in 1823. In that same year, he emigrated with his family to Van Diemen's Land where he was to become the head of a prominent Tasmanian family.
In September 1823, Von Bibra went hunting and failed to return. His body was found floating in the Macquarie River, and his death rule accidental (though local rumours hinted at suicide). His family struggled financially for several years before his widow and some of his children departed for England on 25 January 1830.
