The Committee of the C J La Trobe Society Inc.
PRESIDENT:
Diane Gardiner
Diane Gardiner is the Chair of the History Council of Victoria and Manager of the Old Treasury Building, Melbourne. She was previously Manager of Community Access at the Public Record Office Victoria, and Manager Education and Public Programs at theOld Melbourne Gaol, National Trust of Australia (Victoria). She is a foundation member of the La Trobe Society and has many years experience in developing innovative and successful programs to link schools with community history groups.
VICE PRESIDENT:
Peter Corlett OAM
Peter Corlett is a leading sculptor, who has contributed many fine works to the Australian and international landscape. In the past twenty years he has completed over thirty major public sculpture commissions. Peter is best known for his full-figure sculptures cast in bronze, especially his memorial works. His portrait C J La Trobe, commissioned by the La Trobe Society and unveiled by our patron, the Governor, Professor David de Krester, on the forecourt of the State Library of Victoria in November 2006, is one of his finest works. Other commissions have included Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop (1995, Canberra and Melbourne), Cobbers (1998, Fromelles), Four Victorian Premiers (1999, Treasury Place, Melbourne) and Australian Lighthorse memorial (2008, Be’er Sheva, Israel).
VICE PRESIDENT:
Daryl Ross
Daryl Ross, an industrial chemist by training, is a retired business executive and former export consultant with extensive experience in Africa and Asia. He was chair of the Australian Southern African Business Council from 1986 to 1996 and retains an active interest in international affairs.
His great grandfather, Louis Ernest Leuba, one of the many Neuchâtel Swiss vignerons encouraged by CJ La Trobe to settle in Victoria, arrived in Melbourne in March 1854 accompanied by Hubert de Castella and Adolphe de Meuron. His other maternal great grandfather, Henri Frédéric Paris, also from Neuchâtel, settled in Melbourne in 1890. Daryl’s interest in genealogy and the family associations with Neuchâtel, which he has visited many times, triggered his interest in the La Trobe Society when it was first formed. He assisted his cousin Raymond Henderson with family research aspects of his book on the history of the Yarra Valley wine industry From Jolimont to Yering.
SECRETARY:
Dianne Reilly AM
Co-Founder of the La Trobe Society, Dianne Reilly is the Society’s Secretary. She was the La Trobe Librarian at the State Library of Victoria from 1982 to 2008, and is currently Coordinator of the State Library of Victoria Foundation’s Redmond Barry Society. She is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral thesis was titled ‘Charles Joseph La Trobe: the Making of a Governor’.
Dianne has published extensively on La Trobe and is currently working on a biography of Victoria’s first Lieutenant-Governor.
TREASURER:
John Drury
Co-founder of the La Trobe Society, John Drury is its Treasurer. He is a consultant designer to the museums showcase industry. He has a life-long love of history, and his forthcoming publication is Charles Joseph La Trobe: the Making of a Statue. He is currently researching the biography of Berthe Mouchette, founder of the Alliance Française in Australia.
ASSISTANT TREASURER:
John Botham
John Botham spent a career in the RAF and with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority before developing an interest in early Victorian history. He assisted with the production of La Trobe’s Jolimont, A walk round my garden (2006) and has worked tirelessly since then to develop an understanding amongst government and the public of the heritage importance of the La Trobe’s Cottage. He was a member of the 2009 Conference Organising Committee of the Australian Garden History Society, and is currently Vice-Chair of the Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE:
Loreen Chambers, Editor
Dianne Reilly AM
Robyn Riddett
Building on the work of foundation Editor, Dr Fay Woodhouse, the Editorial Committee produces the Society’s journal, La Trobeana, three times a year in February, June and November.
EVENTS COMMITTEE
Fay Woodhouse, Convenor
Fay Woodhouse is principal historian of Hindsight Consulting Historians She is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Historical Studies at The University of Melbourne, and was the Editor of the La Trobe Society’s journal La Trobeana from 2002 to 2008.
Dianne Reilly AM
John Drury
WEB SITE
John Botham
Helen Armstrong
FRIENDS OF LA TROBE'S COTTAGE
John Drury, Chair Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage.
COMMITTEE
Susan Priestley
Susan Priestley is a freelance historian with a central focus on the history of Victoria. She has written five local histories, four about Victorian organizations, one volume of The Victorians, a three-volume set commissioned for the State’s sesquicentenary in 1984, as well as entries for the Australian Dictionary of Biography and the new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.
As a Fellow and former Councillor of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, she shares its commitment to collection, research and dissemination of knowledge about the State’s history. Being a foundation member of the La Trobe Society, and Vice-President from 2006 until 2009, is an endorsement of Emerson’s aphorism that ‘there is properly no history; only biography’.
Judith Ryles
CO-FOUNDER, PAST PRESIDENTS & FORMER COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Richard Heathcote
Richard Heathcote was a co-founder of the La Trobe Society with John Drury and Dianne Reilly. He served as Vice-President from 2001 until 2005 when he left Victoria to take up his position as Director of Carrick Hill Estate in South Australia.
W Bruce Nixon
Bruce Nixon was the first President of the La Trobe Society, retiring towards the end of 2001 due to ill-health. He was the Publisher of two works on Charles Joseph La Trobe:
Charles Joseph La Trobe: Landscapes and Sketches, State Library of Victoria in association with Tarcoola Press and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), 1999, and
Charles Joseph La Trobe: Australian Notes 1839-1854, Tarcoola Press in association with the State Library of Victoria and Boz Publishing, 2006
Professor A G L Shaw AO
Alan Shaw has degrees from The Universities of Melbourne, Oxford and Newcastle. He has taught history at Melbourne, Sydney and Monash Universities. Amongst his numerous publications, his works include A History of the Port Phillip District, (1996), Gipps-La Trobe Correspondence, (1989), Sir George Arthur 1784-1854: A Biography, (1980), Convicts and the Colonies, (1966 and 1977), The Story of Australia (1960), Economic Development of Australia (1944, 1980), and Modern World History (1961). He was President of the La Trobe Society from 2001 to 2003.
Rodney Davidson AO OBE
Rodney Disney Davidson, is by profession, a solicitor and a company director. He has for many years also been a patron of Victoria's arts and heritage. Rodney is Emeritus President and Emeritus Chairman of the National Trust and was appointed President of the La Trobe Society in 2003, which position he held until 2009. He was Chairman of the W R Johnston Trust from 1995 to 2009 and has been a Patron of the Friends of the Baillieu Library since 2002.
Professor John Barnes
John Barnes, MA (Melb), MA (Cantab) is Emeritus Professor of English at La Trobe University where he taught for many years before his retirement in 1996. His speciality is Australian literature, on which he has published articles and books. He edited The La Trobe Journal for the State Library of Victoria Foundation from 1998 to 2008. John’s interest in La Trobe has a personal aspect, as his great-grandfather came from a Swiss family which emigrated to Victoria from Neuchâtel in 1854. He hopes that his further research on La Trobe will lead to a book-length study.
Peter Lovell
Peter Lovell is a Director of Lovell Chen and Associates, a contemporary architectural practice with more than 25 years experience in design and heritage. An established authority in the field of conservation, research and investigation, Peter’s deep understanding of traditional materials and methods expands the range and possibilities of contemporary designs, as well as underwriting the role of Lovell Chen as expert witnesses and consultants to national and state statutory planning and heritage bodies. Peter is a foundation member of the La Trobe Society and served as Acting President in 2010.