Alexander Black (surveyor)

Alexander Black
Alexander Black
Born	25 May 1827; Arndilly, Banffshire, Scotland
Died	13 March 1897 (aged 69); St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Surveyor
Known for	Surveying the Victorian-New South Wales border

Last updated March 08, 2019

Alexander Black (25 May 1827 – 13 March 1897) was a Scottish-born surveyor who worked for most of career in Victoria, Australia and was Surveyor General of Victoria for six years from 1886.^[1]

The Surveyor General of Victoria is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Victoria, Australia. The original duties for the Surveyor General was to measure and determine land grants for settlers in Victoria. The position was created at the time Victoria became a separate colony in 1851.

Black was born at Arndilly, Banffshire, Scotland. After training as a land surveyor in Aberdeen and working locally, he migrated to Victoria in 1852. He worked in the Castlemaine goldfields then returned to Melbourne and joined the Victorian government survey office. His work included the survey of the Black-Allan Line —the eastern "straight-edge" portion of the border between the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria.^[2]

Banffshire is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Aberdeen is a city in northeast Scotland. It is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 37th most populous built-up area, with an official population estimate of 196,670 for the city of Aberdeen and 228,800 for the local council area.

Black was appointed Surveyor General of Victoria on 1 July 1886 and held the position until his retirement in May 1892. He was elected a member of the Victorian Institute of Surveyors in 1877 and was president 1879 to 1880. He died in St Kilda, Victoria on 13 March 1897.^[1]

St Kilda is an inner suburb of the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Port Phillip. At the 2011 Census, St Kilda had a population of 17,795.

Related Research Articles

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, surveyor and explorer of south-eastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. In 1827 he took up an appointment as Assistant Surveyor General of New South Wales. The following year he became Surveyor General and remained in this position until his death. Mitchell was knighted in 1839 for his contribution to the surveying of Australia.

Bridge of Allan is a town in the Stirling council area in Scotland, just north of the city of Stirling. It lies on the Allan Water, a northern tributary of the River Forth, built largely on the well-wooded slopes of the Westerton and Airthrey estates, sheltered by the Ochil Hills from the north and east winds. Most of the town is to the east of the river; the bridge is part of the A9, Scotland's longest road, while the railway line and the M9 pass to the west of the river. Bridge of Allan railway station is on the Edinburgh to Dunblane Line.

Mary Elizabeth Delahunty is an Australian journalist and politician with the Labor Party.

Boyle Travers Finniss was the first Premier of South Australia, serving from 24 October 1856 to 20 August 1857.

Sir Malcolm Fraser was Surveyor-General in colonial Western Australia from 1872 to 1883 and Agent-General for the colony 1892 to 1898.

Alexander Fraser may refer to:

The Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. It was established on 8 February 1853 to build a railway from Melbourne to Echuca on the Victorian-NSW border and a branch railway to Williamstown. The company struggled to make any progress and on 23 May 1856, the colonial Government took over the Company and it became part of the newly established Department of Railways, part of the Board of Land and Works. The Department of Railways became Victorian Railways in 1859.

Robert Russell was an architect and surveyor, active in Australia. He conducted the first survey of the site of the nascent settlement of Melbourne on the banks of the Yarra River in 1836, and designed St James Old Cathedral, the oldest building remaining in central Melbourne. He was also a prolific and talented artist and his work is held by major libraries and galleries in Australia.

Richard Austin Bastow was an Australian naturalist and bryologist.

George Christian Darbyshire civil engineer

George Christian Darbyshire was an English and Australian civil engineer. He was the second son of George Darbyshire, also a surveyor and railway engineer.

The Black-Allan Line is the eastern "straight-edge" portion of the state border between the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. The line stretches north-west from Cape Howe on the Tasman Sea to Indi Springs, the headwaters of the Murray River. The Murray River then forms the remainder of the boundary between the two states until it reaches the South Australian border.

Alexander John Skene was Surveyor General of Victoria, from 1869 to 1886.

Alexander Black may refer to:

Walter Madden was an Australian politician, member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1880 to 1894.

John Nimmo J.P., C.E., was an Australian politician and member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

William Thwaites (engineer) Civil engineer in Australia

William Thwaites (1853–1907) was a civil engineer working in Melbourne, Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was responsible for the design and supervision of construction of Melbourne's sewerage system.

Alexander Fyfe was a Scottish-born settler of Victoria, Australia, who became a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Victorian Legislative Council and the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

William Adams Brodribb Australian pastoralist and politician

William Adams Brodribb was an Australian pastoralist and politician.

Michael John Flannigan was the first District Surveyor of King Island (Tasmania), Australia. His work was singled out for praise by the Surveyor-General, Albert Edward Counsel, at a time when professional standards for land surveyors were newly defined and often disregarded by practitioners.

William Edward Bryson was a British civil engineer, surveyor and architect who was involved in major railway projects in Ireland, Scotland, the United States, and Australia. He was born in Edinburgh on 1823, educated at the Academy of Design in Dublin, and worked initially in Ireland in the construction of the Dublin and Mullingar Railway, and then in Scotland, on the Dumfries and Glasgow Railway.

References

1 2 Nunn, H. W. (1969). "Black, Alexander (1827–1897)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
↑ Albert, Nadia (2003), Surveying the Black-Allan Line (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2012, retrieved 2012-02-03

Preceded by Alexander John Skene	Surveyor General of Victoria 1886–1892	Succeeded by Michael Callanan

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[adb-1] 1 2 Nunn, H. W. (1969). "Black, Alexander (1827–1897)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 14 June 2012.

[2] Albert, Nadia (2003), Surveying the Black-Allan Line (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2012, retrieved 2012-02-03

Alexander Black
Born	(1827-05-25)25 May 1827 Arndilly, Banffshire, Scotland
Died	13 March 1897(1897-03-13) (aged 69) St Kilda, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	Surveyor
Known for	Surveying the Victorian-New South Wales border