Augustus Alt Augustus Theodore Harman Alt ( 1731 – 9 January 1815 ) was a British soldier and Australia ' s first Surveyor - General . 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 . 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 . The title " Baron " was never awarded by the German Emperor , though a grant of arms was later awarded to his family by the British monarch . More likely it was a family nickname that he and several generations of male descendants chose to use . Hesse - Kassel ( or Hesse - Cassel ) was a medium - sized German state that was strategically located between the main part of Prussia and the Prussian provinces of Westphalia in western Germany and now no longer exists . His Scottish mother , Jeannetta Preston , was a daughter of Sir John Preston of Prestonhall , Cupar , Fife . Her maternal line was Elphinstone , the family being attainted Jacobites , something which caused her marriage to Just Henry in 1729 to be kept ' heimliche ' , or private . 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 8th ( The King ' s ) Regiment of Foot . In 1757 as Lieutenant he accompanied Sir John Mordaunt ' s expedition to Rochefort , France . From 1760 during the Seven Years War he served as aide - de - camp to General Henry Seymour Conway , and appears to have liaised with Prince Ferdinand . He ended up at the siege of Kassel in 1762 , returning with the regiment in 1763 , thereafter assisting it to build roads in Scotland until 1764 . During late 1777 he helped raise the 72nd Regiment of Foot ( Royal Manchester Volunteers ) and served with that regiment at the Great Siege of Gibraltar , being appointed assistant Engineer there by Governor George Eliott in 1779 . In 1781 , he joined Colonel James Francis Erskine in trying to raise a battalion of Swiss Chasseurs for service with 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 . In 1787 , he was appointed Surveyor of Lands for the new Botany Bay colony and sailed on the ship " Prince of Wales " with the First Fleet under Commodore Arthur Phillip ( later Governor of the colony ) . They arrived at Botany Bay in mid - January 1788 and shortly after moved to Port Jackson , landing on 26 January 1788 . Soon after his arrival in New South Wales Augustus laid out the settlements of Albion ( later Sydney ) , Parramatta and Tongabby ( later 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 . Surveyor General of New South Wales . At first , in his official capacity as Surveyor General of New South Wales , he lived in the town of Sydney , then for many years afterwards on a large land grant , ' Hermitage Farm ' , at Ashfield about seven miles west ( and now an inner western suburb ) . It is said that he moved to Parramatta c1810 , or a little later . He died there on 9 January 1815 . He had two children , Lucy and Henry , by convict Ann George but never married her . Ann died in 1814 . Lucy died as a teenager in 1806 . Henry , aged 17 , left the colony at the end of 1815 on the ship " Northampton " bound for China , but nothing further is known of him . Augustus is buried at the 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 .