Augustus Alt

Augustus Theodore Henry Alt (1731 – 9 January 1815) was a British soldier and Australia's first Surveyor-General.^[1]

Early life

Augustus Theodore Harman Alt was born to father Jost Heinrich (anglicised to Just Henry), a Hessian, and mother Jeannetta Preston, a Scotswoman, probably in London, but possibly overseas, in 1731.^[1] Just Henry entered the service of the Landgrave in Sweden as Writer to Major General Ernst Hartmann von Diemar, with whom he moved to London in 1725 as Registrar. Henry successively became Secretary, Private Secretary, Counsellor, Minister, and, 1760, Privy Counsellor, until his death in 1768. In later life he assumed the title "Baron of Hesse-Kassel," though its provenance is unclear as the title "Baron" was never awarded by the German Emperor. Nonetheless, a grant of arms was later awarded to the family by the British monarch.

Augustus was the third eldest of at least seven children, four boys and three girls, and possibly nine if another reported brother and sister are included.

Career

By 1755 Augustus was Ensign in the

East India Company. The venture was stopped by the Swiss authorities with Augustus and fellow officers being jailed for several months. In 1785, he was engineer for another thwarted venture with Erskine to assist the Polish adventurer Count Maurice Benyovszky found a settlement in Madagascar

.

Surveyor General of New South Wales

In May 1787, Alt was appointed Surveyor of Lands for Britain's proposed penal colony on the newly claimed Australian continent. Later that year he embarked aboard the convict transport Prince of Wales with the First Fleet under Commodore Arthur Phillip. They arrived at Botany Bay in mid-January 1788 and shortly after moved to Port Jackson, landing on 26 January 1788. On arrival, Alt supervised the Fleet convicts in clearing the ground for the establishment of the first colonial buildings in Sydney Cove.^[2]

Soon after his arrival in

Toongabbie), as well as surveying early land-grants and compiling the records of these. Ill health incapacitated him early on and he had asked to be relieved in 1791, although he did not retire from active duty until 1797. He was officially relieved on half-pay in 1802 and succeeded by his deputy, surveyor Charles Grimes

.

At first, in his official capacity as he lived in the town of Sydney, then for many years afterwards on a large land grant, 'Hermitage Farm', at

Anglican St. John's graveyard, Parramatta, with a table monument giving full, if slightly incorrect, biographical details set down later by his nephew Matthew Bowles Alt, son of Just Alt, long-time rector at Mixbury

, Oxon.