Süssmilch was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to German immigrants.
He worked as an indent clerk and studied science part-time at Sydney Technical College, where he later taught geology and mining.
His first scientific paper (on basic plutonic rocks near Kiama) was published in the Royal Society of New South Wales journal in 1905.
The next three decades he produced a total of nineteen published papers on various aspects of geology and the physical geography of New South Wales.
He was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales (of which he was president in 1922) in 1939.