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Alexander Grant McLean
(1824-1862), surveyor-general, was born in Scotland, the second son of
Captain John Leyburn Maclean, principal superintendent of convicts
(1837-55), and his wife Jane Eliza, née Grant. He arrived in Sydney with
his family in the Earl Durham on 31 August 1837. In April 1842 Governor
Gipps was asked by Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell to fill a
vacancy in his department by appointing McLean who had long been
studying plan drawing and doing useful work. He was appointed on 11 May,
became chief draftsman in 1856 and was secretary to the Court of Claims
in 1854-59. In 1855 he told the commission into the Surveyor-General's
Department of drafting and surveying procedures and his objection to the
large number of temporary staff. At the 1859 select committee on the
Survey Department he attributed the department's inefficiency to lack of
supervision and the dual system of staff and licensed surveyors.
In August the minister for lands, John Robertson, reorganized the Survey
Department and made McLean acting surveyor-general on 12 August.
Robertson believed that although McLean lacked field experience he had
ability and long departmental experience. Instructed to propose reforms,
McLean argued that an efficient and energetic administration was
required, not radical changes. He rearranged the duties of his staff,
transferred some to the Department of Lands and appointed district
surveyors to supervise licensed surveyors. In January 1861 Governor
Denison severely criticized the unprofessionalism of the
surveyors-general and the inaccuracy of their methods. He strongly
advocated a trigonometrical survey but McLean believed that cost
outweighed its merits. He authorized the compilation of a map of New
South Wales which was published in 1861. His work facilitated the
introduction of Robertson's Land Acts. On 1 November 1861 he was
appointed surveyor-general.
An original member of the volunteer movements of 1854 and 1860 McLean
attained the rank of captain. On 6 April 1861 at St Anne's Church, Ryde,
he married Catherine, daughter of Captain John Woore. For some time he
had suffered from Bright's disease aggravated by overwork. On medical
advice he took leave in August 1862 to stay with E. K. Cox at Fernhill,
Mulgoa. His condition worsened and he died on 28 September at Fernhill
aged 38 and was buried in St Thomas's Anglican church-yard. He was
survived by his wife and an infant daughter. He had failed to establish
efficiency or to overcome the arrears of work, but his energy, attention
to detail and obliging manner raised the department in popular esteem,
something his more qualified predecessor had failed to achieve.
A town near Grafton is named after him. Portraits are in the Mitchell
Library and the Department of Lands. |
