The C J La Trobe Society Inc, in association with the State Library Victoria, awards a La Trobe Society Fellowship for Australian historians, scholars and writers interested in researching the colonial period of Victoria’s history during Charles Joseph La Trobe’s administration as Superintendent and Lieutenant-Governor (1839-1854). The research may be extended to cover the period immediately before La Trobe’s arrival, or the effects of his tenure after his departure from Victoria.
Projects under the State Library’s Fellowships Program must make significant and creative use of the collections of State Library Victoria.
Current La Trobe Society Fellow
Dr Ashleigh Green
The Construction of Gaols, Prisons and Asylums in Port Phillip and the Colony of Victoria during the La Trobe Administration, 1839-1854. (3 months, $15,000).
‘Law and Order Under La Trobe: the first prisons of Port Phillip’, La Trobeana, Vol 22, No 2, July 2023, 5-15.
Previous La Trobe Society Fellows
2019-2020
Megan Anderson
Costume: Extravagance, Tradition and Power. An exploration of Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe’s uniform. (3 months, $15,000).
‘Extravagance, Tradition and Power: an exploration of Lieutenant-Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe’s uniform’, La Trobeana, Vol 20, No 3, November 2021, 5-14.
2017-2018
Dr Monique Webber
La Trobe’s Garden City and the Lost Sculptures of Fitzroy Gardens. (3 months, $15,000).
‘La Trobe’s Garden City and the Lost Sculptures of Fitzroy Gardens’,
Report, La Trobeana, Vol 20, Suppl, December 2021, 3-51, images
Summary, La Trobeana, Vol 18, No 1, March 2019, 8-11.
2013-2014
Dr Madonna Grehan
An Émigré Gentlewoman Midwife in Port Phillip and Victoria, 1848-1880. (3 months, $12,500):
‘Charles Joseph La Trobe and the Regulation of Everyday Life: implementing the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act in Victoria, 1852-1858’ – AGL Shaw lecture,
La Trobeana, Vol 14, No 2, July 2015, 6-15. Podcast.
‘Safely thro’ her Confinement: bearing and rearing babies in nineteenth century Victoria’, La Trobeana, Vol 13, No 3, November 2014, 10-18.
Caroline Clemente
Thomas Woolner: a Pre-Raphaelite Artist in Melbourne. (Honorary fellowship):
‘La Trobe and the Pre-Raphaelites: launching a brilliant career in Melbourne, 1853’,
La Trobeana, Vol 13, No 3, November 2014, 27-34.
2009-2010
Dr Helen MacDonald
The Mysterious Life of Henry Condell, Melbourne’s First Mayor. Sponsored by the AGL Shaw Foundation, 6 months $25,000:
‘Henry Condell: Melbourne’s First Mayor’, La Trobeana, Vol 9, No 1, February 2010, 14-17.
‘Inhabiting Melbourne, 1835-45: Henry Condell and other Early Settlers’,
La Trobeana, Vol 12, No 1, March 2013, 10-14.
2008-2009
Dr Wayne Caldow
Perceptions of Place: the European Experience of Gippsland, 1839-1844. Sponsored by the Shoppee Family, 6 months $25,000:
‘The Early Livestock Trade Between Gippsland and Van Diemen’s Land: insights from Patrick Coady Buckley’s Journal of 1844’,
The La Trobe Journal, No.86, December 2010, 23-36.
2007-2008
Dr Frances Thiele
Edward Stone Parker and the Aboriginal people of the Mount Macedon District. Sponsored by the Rodney Davidson Family, 6 months $25,000:
‘La Trobe and the Bureaucrats: how the best of intentions failed to protect the Aboriginal people of Port Phillip’. [Macedon, Vic.], F. M. Thiele, 2017. PDF Contents
‘Superintendent La Trobe and the amenability of Aboriginal people to British law 1839-1846’, Provenance: the journal of Public Record Office Victoria, No.8, 2009.
‘La Trobe and the Aboriginal people: a challenging relationship’ – address given at the Australian Club, 7 December 2007, La Trobeana, Vol 7, No 1, February 2008, 7-14.
Philanthropic support for future Fellowships
Potential sponsors to facilitate the continuation of this Fellowship are invited to contact the Manager/Treasurer of the C J La Trobe Society, John Drury OAM, M 0412 584 060