Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor by John Barnes

by
January–February 2018, no. 398

La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor by John Barnes

Halstead Press, $59.95 hb, 384 pp, 9781925043334

La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor by John Barnes

by
January–February 2018, no. 398

Victorians know the name La Trobe through the eponymous university, La Trobe Street in the city of Melbourne, and the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland. Tasmanians are familiar with the town of Latrobe in the north-west of their state. But how many are aware that all the above were named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, the first superintendent of the European settlement of Port Phillip, one-time acting governor of Tasmania, and the first lieutenant-governor of the new British colony of Victoria?

La Trobe’s reputation has been a mixed one. Few of his Melbourne contemporaries questioned his personal qualities, but they, and later historians, regularly contrasted these with his perceived inefficiencies and weaknesses as an administrator. In this sympathetic biography, John Barnes balances the ledger. Whilst not uncritical or shying away from what he sees as La Trobe’s weaknesses, Barnes argues strongly – and elegantly – for La Trobe being both a man of fine personal qualities and, for most of his time in Victoria, a competent and good administrator.

John Arnold reviews 'La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor' by John Barnes

La Trobe: Traveller, writer, governor

by John Barnes

Halstead Press, $59.95 hb, 384 pp, 9781925043334

You May Also Like

Comment (1)

  • La Trobe also set aside Royal Park for the health and recreation of citizens. Uniquely for an inner-city park, it maintains characteristics of the pre-European settlement landscape.
    Posted by Anthony Ferguson
    14 December 2017

Leave a comment

If you are an ABR subscriber, you will need to sign in to post a comment.

If you have forgotten your sign in details, or if you receive an error message when trying to submit your comment, please email your comment (and the name of the article to which it relates) to ABR Comments. We will review your comment and, subject to approval, we will post it under your name.

Please note that all comments must be approved by ABR and comply with our Terms & Conditions.