Events

Friday – 29 June 2018 Melbourne Rare Book Week Lecture: 6 – 8.30 pm ‘The Remarkable Library of Bishop Goold: its creation, loss and rediscovery’. Guest Speaker: Shane Carmody, historian. Venue: Tonic House, 386 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. No charge. Bookings essential by 26 June. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 8 July 2018 Edward Byam Wight: pioneer in the Port Phillip District: 2.30–4pm Davydd Shaw will outline the immigration of Edward Byam Wight (1815-1900) and Catherine Philpott (1824-1910) who arrived independent of each other in Melbourne in 1841. Their marriage and subsequent life in Port Phillip was profitable and rewarding. Edward was a man of his time, well suited to the expansion of the colony and the opportunities that were available. more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens (leave ample time to park). Refreshments. Cost: $5, payable at the door. Bookings essential by 4 July (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Wednesday – 1 August 2018 La Trobe Society Annual General Meeting and Dinner: 6.30pm Guest Speaker: Dr Monique Webber, La Trobe Society Fellow 2017-18, who will speak on ’La Trobe's Garden City and the Lost Sculptures of the Fitzroy Gardens’. Venue: Lyceum Club, Ridgway Place, Melbourne. Enquiries to secretary@latrobesociety.org.au, Ph: 9646 2112. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 12 August 2018 La Trobe and his Horses - Testing Times: 2.30 – 4pm Peter Hiscock AM, former director the Sovereign Hill outdoor museum at Ballarat, and life-long horseman, will focus on the horse as a major player in the settlement of the Port Phillip District. more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens (leave ample time to park). Refreshments. Cost: $5, payable at the door. Bookings essential by 8 August. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Sunday – 8 September 2018 Gulf Station: one of the National Trust’s La Trobe era properties: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Irene Kearsey, volunteer guide at Gulf Station in the Yarra Valley, will talk about the property’s Scottish settlers and give a flavour of pioneering life in rural Victoria. more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens (leave ample time to park). Refreshments. Cost: $5, payable at the door. Bookings essential by 4 September. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Tuesday – 18 September 2018 Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage annual lecture: 6 – 8pm ‘Eliza Nelson and Dr John Singleton: eventful lives in colonial Victoria’. Eliza Nelson was a gold rush immigrant, pioneer, midwife and entrepreneur; she also became a temperance advocate and a friend and assistant to the social reformer and philanthropist Dr John Singleton MD. Speaker: Lorraine Finlay, former volunteer manager, La Trobe’s Cottage. Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens. Refreshments. Cost: $25 (discount for Cottage volunteers). Bookings essential by 14 September. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Early Melbourne Paintings: selected times (or as arranged for groups) Exhibition of Early Melbourne paintings, lithographs, watercolours and sketches, from the Roy Morgan Research collection. Special tours in conjunction with historic furniture. Venue: Old Treasury Building, 20 Spring Street, Melbourne. Cost: $8 adults. Bookings essential: Ph 9651 2233, email bookings@oldtreasurybuilding.org.au     Catalogue    Images
Past events
Tuesday – 19 June 2018 Joint La Trobe Society/ RHSV AGL Shaw Lecture: 6.30 – 8pm ‘Charles La Trobe and Hugh Childers: the ladder of success in Victoria’. Speaker: Major-General Michael O’Brien (Rtd). Venue: Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Cnr William and A’Beckett Streets, Melbourne.  (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 10 June 2018 Georgiana McCrae and her ‘Favorite’ Music: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Dr Rosemary Richards, musicologist, operatic coach and educator, spoke on Georgiana McCrae’s favourite music and events in her life, as revealed in her four known music collections - including the McCrae Homestead music book 1841/56, - during the La Trobe era in colonial Victoria. Musicians played musical selections. more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Sunday – 22 April to 6 May 2018 Australian Heritage Festival at La Trobe’s Cottage: open 2 – 4pm Visitors were able to learn about Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria's first Governor and visionary administrator. They were also able to hear some fascinating stories from the family's letters about their life in early Melbourne, both before and during the years of the gold rushes.
Sunday – 1 to 29 April 2018 Art Exhibition at La Trobe’s Cottage: open 2 – 4pm Visitors were able to view delightful paintings and drawings of La Trobe’s House and Garden by members of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors that will be available for purchase. (Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Sunday – 18 March 2018 La Trobe’s Birthday Celebration: 4.30-6pm Opening of Art Exhibition featuring La Trobe’s Cottage and Garden, as sketched by members of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Guest speaker: Jo Reitze, fellow of the Victorian Artists’ Society. Afterwards birthday cake and festive drinks to celebrate Charles Joseph La Trobe’s 217th birthday.  (La Trobe Society event)
Friday – 26 January 2018 Family Day at La Trobe’s Cottage: Cottage open 1 – 4pm Spend your afternoon in the beautiful Domain, with guided tours of the Cottage, rope-making, old-fashioned games for the children and light refreshments for purchase in the garden. Entry by donation. It was also Open Day at nearby Government House, so visitors were able to visit the homes of both the first and current Victorian Governors.
Sunday – 3 December 2017 Anniversary of the Death of C J La Trobe - Sunday Service: 11am Charles Joseph La Trobe was remembered at a service at St Peter’s Eastern Hill, coinciding with a memorial service at St Michael the Archangel, Litlington, Sussex, where he is buried. The Vicar of St Peter’s, Rev’d Dr Hugh Kempster, invited La Trobe Society members and their friends to the service, followed by refreshments. Address: 15 Gisborne Street, Melbourne.
Friday – 24 November 2017 Christmas Cocktails: 6 – 8pm Guest speaker: Dr Doug McCann, who talked about ‘The Royal Society and its History’ - Charles Joseph La Trobe having been the patron of the Philosophical Society, forerunner of the present Society. Venue: Royal Society of Victoria, 8 La Trobe Society, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event)
Wednesday – 25 October 2017 Furphy Lecture: 5.45 – 8 pm Guest speaker: Matthew Richardson, ‘How Minds Began: Classical Evolutionary Insights that Escaped Darwin and Dawkins’. Post-lecture, La Trobe University Chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins, launched John Barnes’ biography, La Trobe: Traveller, Writer, Governor (Halstead Press) to coincide with La Trobe University's 50th anniversary. Venue: Shepparton Campus, La Trobe University.  (La Trobe University event)
Sunday – 15 & 22 October 2017 History Week at La Trobe’s Cottage: 2 – 4pm Tours focused on Charles Joseph La Trobe as the pioneering administrator in Victoria’s foundation and also provide an insight into family life at his ‘Jolimont’ estate. Click here to visit the History Week website
Sunday – 1 October 2017 Garden Day at La Trobe’s Cottage: 1 – 4pm Spring Opening of the Cottage with an emphasis on La Trobe’s garden, and the heritage plants he favoured. La Trobe’s Cottage Gardener, Sandi Pullman, led tours of the garden at 1.15, 2.15 and 3.15pm. At this time we celebrated the 178th anniversary of the La Trobe family’s arrival in early Melbourne.
Sunday – 10 September 2017 La Trobe and the Cape Otway Lighthouse: 2.30–4pm Speaker: Tim Gatehouse, researcher into Victoria’s colonial era, talked about Charles Joseph La Trobe’s role in building the lighthouse that created a safer shipping route through treacherous Bass Strait, more… Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens.  YouTube video   (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe's Cottage event)
Sunday – 13 August 2017 Captain ‘Old King’ Cole: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: John Botham, early Melbourne researcher, used George Ward Cole, Port Phillip Pioneer and Victorian Patriarch, to illustrate life and progress in Melbourne’s founding years, more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens.  You Tube video (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe's Cottage event)
Wednesday – 2 August 2017 La Trobe Society AGM and Dinner: 6.30pm Guest Speaker: Professor Ian D. Clark, Federation University, whose topic was ‘A Fascination with Bunyips’. Venue: Lyceum Club, Ridgway Place, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 9 July 2017 Pioneer Public Health Practitioners in the Port Phillip District: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Dr Walter Heale MBBS FRACP, medical historian, shared his research into five very interesting and little known identities in the early medical scene in Victoria, more... Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens.  You Tube video (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe's Cottage event)
Friday – 30 June Melbourne Rare Book Week Lecture: 6.30 – 8.00pm ‘The Antiquities of Mexico: Charles La Trobe, Lord Kingsborough and the nine magnificent volumes of The Antiquities of Mexico’. Speaker: Dr Sylvia Whitmore, Research Fellow, La Trobe University. Venue: Tonic House, 386 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event, sponsored by Roy Morgan Research)
Thursday – 29 June 2017 Author in-Conversation : John Barnes on Charles Joseph La Trobe: 11am – 12.15pm At this event author John Barnes shed new light on Charles Joseph La Trobe, the subject of his new biography, La Trobe: Traveller, Writer, Governor. Venue: Red Rotunda, Cowen Gallery, State Library Victoria.   YouTube (State Library Victoria event)
Tuesday – 20 June 2017 C J La Trobe Society/RHSV A G L Shaw lecture: 6.30 – 8pm Guest speaker: Professor Keir Reeves, Federation University, whose topic was ‘The Historical Legacy of Victoria’s Goldrushes’. Venue: Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Cnr William and A’Beckett Streets, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 11 June 2017 Surveying the Landscape: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Dr Fay Woodhouse, historian, considered who was responsible for the first plan of Melbourne: Robert Russell or Robert Hoddle? more… Followed by the launch of Patricia Hawkins' Robert Russell: artist of early Melbourne, editor Fay Woodhouse, flier. Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Tuesday – 9 May 2017 Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage Annual Lecture: 6 – 8pm Guest Speaker: Simon Ambrose, CEO, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), who talked about ‘Heritage and the National Trust: An Eye to the Past, Plans for the Future’. Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Sunday – 23 and 30 April 2017 Australian Heritage Festival at La Trobe’s Cottage: open 2 – 4pm Visitors were able to learn about Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria's first Governor and visionary administrator. They were also able to hear some fascinating stories from the family's letters about their life in early Melbourne, both before and during the years of the gold rushes.
Tuesday – 11 April 2017 Wild Colonial Boys: Bushrangers in Victoria, exhibition: 6 – 8pm Speaker: Margaret Anderson, General Manager, Old Treasury Building, who considered ‘There is more to Bushranging than Ned Kelly’. Also there was opportunity to view the Executive Council chamber and exhibition of Early Melbourne paintings from the Roy Morgan Research collection. Venue: Old Treasury Building Museum, 20 Spring Street, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday 19 March 2017 La Trobe’s Birthday Celebration: 4.30 – 6pm Speaker: Professor John Barnes, ‘In Search of La Trobe’, on his much anticipated book, La Trobe: Traveller, Writer, Governor. Venue: Mueller Hall, National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne. Afterwards birthday cake and festive drinks to celebrate Charles Joseph La Trobe’s 216th birthday. (La Trobe Society event)
Thursday 26 January 2017 Australia Day at La Trobe’s Cottage: Cottage open 1 – 4pm Visitors were able to join in the celebration of Australia Day in the Domain with guided tours of the Cottage, flag raising ceremonies, rifle salutes and a lamington stall. It was Open Day at nearby Government House so they were able to view the homes of both the first and current Victorian Governors. Click here to visit the Australia Day website
Sunday – 4 December 2016 Service to Mark the Anniversary of the Death of C J La Trobe: 11am Charles Joseph La Trobe was remembered at a service at St Peter’s Eastern Hill, coinciding with a memorial service at St Michael the Archangel, Litlington, Sussex, where he is buried. The Vicar of St Peter’s, Rev Dr Hugh Kempster, invited La Trobe Society members and their friends to the service, followed by refreshments. Address: 15 Gisborne Street, Melbourne.
Friday – 25 November 2016 Christmas Drinks at the Gothic Bank: 5.30 for 6 – 8pm Guest speaker: Darren Bastian, National Client Services Manager, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, talked about ‘The Gothic Bank and its history’. Venue: Verdon Chambers, ANZ Bank, 380 Collins Street, Melbourne.  (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 23 October 2016 Boroondara (Kew) Cemetery Walking Tour: 2 – 3.30pm Tour of grave sites in this historic cemetery relevant to the La Trobe era. Tour leader: Helen Page, trustee and horticulturalist/ landscape gardener. Venue: Boroondara Cemetery, 430 High Street, Kew. Refreshments. (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 16 & 23 October 2016 History Week at La Trobe’s Cottage: 2 – 4pm Tours focused on Charles Joseph La Trobe as the pioneering administrator in Victoria’s foundation and also provide an insight into family life at his ‘Jolimont’ estate. Click here to visit the History Week website
Sunday – 2 October 2016 Spring Opening at La Trobe’s Cottage: 2 – 4pm A special spring opening of La Trobe’s Cottage, celebrating the 177th anniversary of the arrival of Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria’s first Governor, and his family in early Melbourne. Visitors were able to see how the 1840s-50s garden has developed and enjoy the glories of spring.
Sunday – 25 September 2016 La Trobe’s Jolimont Cottage and Garden 1839 to 2016: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Helen Botham, La Trobe Society member, who talked about the development of La Trobe’s Jolimont estate, and aspects of the La Trobes’ family life at Jolimont. It revealed some lesser-known facts about the Cottage and its owners. Venue: Domain House (next door to La Trobe’s Cottage), Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne 3004. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Tuesday – 30 August 2016 Melbourne Day: 10am–12pm Melburnians were invited to join Lord Mayor at Enterprize Park at 10am for the official Flag Raising Ceremony to celebrate the 181st anniversary of the founding of Melbourne. The free public activities included live entertainment, morning tea and a rifle volley plus cannon fire by the Historical Re-enactment Society of Australia.
Sunday – 28 August 2016 La Trobe’s Enduring Legacy: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Dr Dianne Reilly, La Trobe Society founder, who talked about the achievements that La Trobe made in his term as Superintendent of the Port Phillip District 1839 to 1851 and later as Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony of Victoria 1851 to 1854, from which all Victorians benefit today. Venue: Domain House (next door to La Trobe’s Cottage), Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne 3004. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Wednesday – 3 August 2016 La Trobe Society Annual General Meeting and Dinner: 6.30pm Guest speaker: Professor Graeme Davison, eminent historian and Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor, Monash University, whose topic was ‘The Governor, the Captain and the Needlewomen: how my great-great grandmother arrived in Port Phillip’. Venue: Lyceum Club, Ridgway Place, Melbourne.  Link (La Trobe Society event)
Sunday – 31 July 2016 Victoria before Separation: 2.30 – 4pm Speaker: Loreen Chambers, La Trobe Society member, who talked about the early days of the Port Phillip settlement, and the ‘unnamed little shanty town’ of 1836 that was to become Melbourne, the capital of the newly-created colony of Victoria in July 1851 with a population of nearly 29,000. Venue: Domain House (next door to La Trobe’s Cottage), Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne 3004. (La Trobe Society/Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage event)
Friday – 15 July 2016 Melbourne Rare Book Week Lecture: 6.30 – 8.00pm ‘Books from a Turbulent Time: John Emmerson and the 17th century’, Guest speakers: State Library Victoria Rare Books Team:- Des Cowley, History of the Book Manager, with Richard Overell. Venue: Morgans at 401, 401 Collins Street, Melbourne.  Link (Presented by The La Trobe Society for Melbourne Rare Book Week 2016 and generously sponsored by Mr Gary Morgan, Executive Chairman, Roy Morgan Research.)
Friday – 1 July 2016 Victoria Day: 10.30am – 12pm Victoria Day Council celebration of the 165th anniversary of the Separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales. Victorian flag raising ceremony and the re-enactment of Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe's reading of the proclamation, followed by the presentation of the Victoria Day Awards. Venue: Melbourne Town Hall.
Tuesday – 21 June 2016 C J La Trobe Society/RHSV A G L Shaw lecture: 6.30 – 8pm ‘Unless a Portion be given to the Idle: The Kulin and the New Poor Law at Port Phillip’, Guest speaker: Dr Marguerita Stephens, University of Melbourne Redmond Barry Fellow 2013. Venue: Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Cnr William and A’Beckett Streets, Melbourne. (La Trobe Society event)
Saturday – 18 June 2016 Beleura House & Garden Mornington: 1.30 – 4.30pm Musical afternoon for La Trobe Society members and friends, with piano virtuoso Laurence Matheson. Music of the 18th century by Christian Ignatius La Trobe, father of Charles Joseph, was presented. (La Trobe Society event)
Saturday – 21 May 2016 Special Open Day at La Trobe’s Cottage: 1 – 4pm Celebrating the La Trobe Family during the National Trust's 60th Anniversary celebrations. Visitors were able to hear many fascinating stories of the La Trobes’ fifteen years living in their prefabricated cottage with its beautiful garden, and of the long battle in the 1950s/60s to save the historic cottage - Melbourne’s oldest building.
Saturday – 14 May 2016 Beleura House & Garden Mornington: 9.30am – 2.30pm House and garden tour for La Trobe Society members and friends.
Sunday – 17 and 24 April 2016 Australian Heritage Festival at La Trobe’s Cottage: open 2 – 4pm Visitors were able to learn how Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria's first Governor, and his family lived in early Melbourne. They were also able to hear of La Trobe the adventurous administrator, who made many excursions on horseback around the colony, including three attempts through difficult terrain to discover the site for a much needed lighthouse at Cape Otway.
Tuesday – 12 April 2016 La Trobe’s First Immigrants - the 1839 Voyage of the David Clark: 6.30-8pm Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage Annual Lecture. Speaker: Irene Kearsey, La Trobe Society member, Friends volunteer and dedicated historian. Venue: Domain House (next door to La Trobe’s Cottage), Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne 3004. (La Trobe Society event)
Thurday –17 March 2016 Heritage at your Touch! La Trobe’s Birthday Celebration: 6.30 - 8.30pm Guest speaker Martin Green, Learning Manager, National Trust of Australia (Victoria), talked about Heritage at Your Touch! La Trobe's Cottage in 3D. Then, Public Record Office Victoria’s La Trobe’s Incoming Correspondence online was launched. Venue: Rooftop, Tonic House, 386 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.  (La Trobe Society event)
Monday 29 February – Sunday 30 October 2016 Nature and Art: reflections of two of Ightham Mote's previous residents An exhibition celebrating two gentlemen artists of the 19th century, naturalist Prideaux John Selby who produced Illustrations of British Ornithology (1821-1834) and botanist Charles Joseph La Trobe who sketched his travels in three continents, including views of the manor house Ightham Mote where he lived 1855. Venue: Ightham Mote (National Trust), Sevenoaks, Kent UK.         Catalogue
Tuesday – 26 January 2016 Australia Day at La Trobe’s Cottage: Cottage open 1 – 4pm Visitors were able to join in the celebration of Australia Day in the Domain with guided tours of the Cottage, flag raising ceremonies and rifle salutes. It was Open Day at nearby Government House so they were able to visit the homes of both the first and current Victorian Governors.

 

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