[1] 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.
In 1781, he joined Colonel James Francis Erskine in trying to raise a battalion of Swiss Chasseurs for service with the East India Company.
In 1785, he was engineer for another thwarted venture with Erskine to assist the Polish adventurer Count Maurice Benyovszky found a settlement in Madagascar.
[2] 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.
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 Ashfield about seven miles west (and now an inner western suburb).