Person
D'Alton, St Eloy (1850 - 1930)
- Born
- 17 September 1850
Kilkenny, Ireland - Died
- 17 December 1930
East Malvern, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- Botanical collector and Municipal engineer
Summary
St Eloy D'Alton CE migrated to Victoria in 1871 and settled in western Victoria where he was engineer, valuer and rate collector for the Shire of Lowan, in Dimboola and Nhill, then engineer for the Shire of Dimboola at Jeparit. He made the most of his opportunities while travelling in his professional capacity to collect plants in the Mallee, Wimmera and Grampians regions. His specimens were sent to Ferdinand von Mueller, Victorian Government Botanist, for identification. Mueller appreciated D'Alton's extensive knowledge of the local flora. D'Alton published several papers on this flora. On occasion he and Mueller were in the field together. D'Alton was invited by Mueller's successor, Alfred Ewart, to contribute to his Recording census of the Victorian flora (1908). The National Herbarium of Victoria holds over 800 of D'Alton's specimens.
D'Alton was an assistant engineer, at Stawell, to his brother John, during the construction of the Stawell Water Supply.
Details
Chronology
- 1871
- Life event - Migrated to Victoria
- c. 1873 - 1879
- Career position - Assistant engineer, Borough of Stawell [Assisting in the construction of the Stawell Water Supply]
- 1879
- Career event - Granted Certificate of Competency as Engineer and Surveyor (CE), Shires Statute and Boroughs Statute 1869 VIC
- 1879 - 1899
- Career position - Municipal engineer, Shire of Lowan
- 1883
- Career event - Granted Certificate of Competency as Land Surveyor (LS), Victorian Institute of Surveyors
- 1883 - 1899
- Career position - Engineer, Lowan Shire Water Works Trust
- 1892 - 1895
- Career position - Engineer, Nhill Water Works Trust
- 1897 - 1900
- Career position - Consulting engineer, Shire of Lawloit
- 1900 - 1920
- Career position - Municipal engineer, Shire of Dimboola
- 1904
- Career event - Qualified Municipal Clerk
- 1916 - 1926
- Career event - Member, Institution of Municipal Engineers of Victoria
- 1920
- Life event - Retired
- 1921
- Award - Honorary Member, Institution of Municipal Engineers of Victoria
- 1926
- Career event - Honorary Member of Melbourne Division (HonMIEAust), Institution of Engineers Australia
Related entries
Sibling
Published resources
Books
- D'Alton, St Eloy, Pioneers of the Wimmera - Notes on early settlement of the Wimmera District, with derivations of the names given by the squatters and aborigines (Dimboola, Vic: Banner Printing, c1900), 8 pp, https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3242917614. Details
- McKay, John; and Chappel, Keith L., A Wimmera pioneer and family, St Eloy D'Alton (1850 - 1930) (Cavendish, Vic: Jomac Services, 1999), 87 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- 'Memoirs', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 4 (1932), 401-404. St Eloy Dalton, Honorary Member of Melbourne Division, p.402. Details
- D'Alton, St E., 'The botany of the "Little Desert", Wimmera', The Victorian naturalist, 30 (1893), 65-78, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/10109776. Details
- D'Alton, St E., 'Notes on the plants indigenous to the north-west of the colony of Victoria', Report of the seventh meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 7 (1898), 455-67, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15378443. Details
See also
- Fagg, Murray, 'D'Alton, St Eloy (1850 - 1930)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://anbg.gov.au/biography/dalton-st-eloy.html. Details
- George, Alex S., Australian botanist's companion (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2009), 671 pp. Details
- Willis, J. H., 'Botanical pioneers in Victoria - III', Victorian naturalist, 66 (7) (1949), 123-8, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40808775. [Includes portrait]. Details
Helen Cohn; Ken McInnes
Created: 23 June 2022, Last modified: 5 March 2025