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The Executive
of the La Trobe Society
Profiles
PRESIDENT:
Rodney Davidson AO, OBE
Rodney Disney Davidson, LLB, AO, OBE, 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.
He has been Chairman of the W R Johnston Trust since 1995 and
a Patron of the Friends of the Baillieu Library since 2002.
Other board chairmanships and memberships have included the
Australian Opera Foundation, Exhibition Buildings Trust Melbourne,
L’Oiseau-Lyre Paris, and the Historic Buildings Preservation
Council. Rodney has published several works commemorating Victoria’s
and Australia’s building heritage, including Historic
Homesteads of Australia (1969), A Book Collector’s
Notes (1970) Australia’s Historic Buildings
(1977), Historic Places of Australia Vols. 1 and 2
(1979) and Australian Historical Buildings (1982).
Prof. 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. Since
1998 he has edited The La Trobe Journal for the State Library
of Victoria Foundation. The Autumn 2003 number of the journal
(No. 71), which was devoted to Charles Joseph La Trobe, included
an article by John Barnes, ‘Hunting the Buffalo with Washington
Irving: La Trobe as Traveller and Writer’.
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.
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 is currently researching
the biography of Berthe Mouchette, founder of the Alliance Française
in Australia.
VICE PRESIDENT:
Susan Priestley
Victoria’s history has been a central focus in Susan Priestley’s
career as a freelance historian. 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 Dictionary of National Biography.
As a Fellow and 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 C.J. La Trobe Society is an
endorsement of Emerson’s aphorism that ‘there is
properly no history; only biography’.
SECRETARY:
Dr Dianne Reilly
Co-Founder of the La Trobe Society, Dianne Reilly is the Society’s
Secretary. She is the La Trobe Librarian at the State Library
of Victoria and is a Fellow of the History Department 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.
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).
Through his ongoing study of Australian history he has been
appointed to a range of historical bodies and associations including
the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Public Records
Advisory Council, and the Historical and Literary Committee,
150th Anniversary Celebrations of Victoria (1980-84).
EDITOR:
Dr Fay Woodhouse
Fay Woodhouse is principal historian of Hindsight Consulting
Historians researching, analyzing and documenting the history
of people, houses, institutions, localities and Shires for individuals,
businesses and Government. She is a Fellow of the Department
of History at The University of Melbourne, and a member of the
Executive of the Professional Historian’s Association.
She is currently working on a brief history of La Trobe’s
journeys through Gippsland.
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