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Free Copy In This Edition: Page Page Charles La Trobe 2 Improving Your Memory 20 Photography 4 The Mobile Phone 21 Point Nepean 6 Victoria’s Gold Rush 22 Melbourne Zoo 8 André Rieu 24 Avalon Raceway 10 Coffee Time! 26 Smurfs 12 Where Is That? 28 Knowing the Road Rules 14 Geelong Word Search 29 Fort Queenscliff 16 Minotaur 30 Novac Djokovic 18 150 Years Ago 31 Sidney Austin 19 Then… & Now 32 Charles Joseph La Trobe was born on March 20, 1801 in London. After receiving his education at schools in London, La Trobe started teaching at Fairfield Boys Boarding School in Manchester. At age 23 he then travelled to Neuchâtel, Switzerland and became tutor to the family of Count Albert de Pourtalès for the next 2 years. He then became a noted mountaineer—a pioneer member of the Alpine Club. In 1832 La Trobe accompanied Count de Pourtales during a tour of America, including sailing down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He published four books based on his travels around America. Returning to Europe, La Trobe stayed at the country house of Frederic Auguste de Montmollin, a Swiss councilor of state, and there became engaged to one of the Montmollin‟s daughters, Sophie. They were married in the British Legation at Berne on September 16, 1835. Upon completing an assignment in the West Indies for the British Govern- ment, La Trobe was sent to the Port Phillip District as Superintendant, even though he had had little managerial and administrative experience. He arrived in Melbourne on September 30, 1839 with his wife and daughter, two servants and a pre-fabricated house. Melbourne had a population of around 3,000 at the time and was rapidly expanding. La Trobe commenced works to improve sanitation and roads. As the Port Phillip District was a dependency of New South Wales at the time, all land sales, building plans and officer appointments had to be approved by the Governor of New South Wales, George Gipps, with whom La Trobe had a good personal and working relationship. During his time as Superintendant of the Port Phillip District, La Trobe was constantly in battle with members of the Melbourne Town Council. They complained that he did not take the lead or campaign actively for separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales, although he personally agreed with Council‟s opinion. The Melbourne Town Council and the press, notably the Argus, led a fierce attack on La Trobe for failing to press Port Phillip's claims strongly enough either in London or Sydney. The Town Council even sent a letter to the Governor in Sydney, as well as Earl Grey in London, demanding La Trobe‟s dismissal from office. Their claims were very petty, indicating a measure of jealousy on their part, as 2 well as a desire for more local representation in Government. Their claims were summarily dismissed by the British authorities. Between 1844-49 a labour shortage limited expansion of the settlements of Melbourne and Geelong, yet La Trobe strongly opposed the sending of convicts to Port Phillip. After being forced to accept a number of shipments during these years he made his stand clear in 1849 when he refused to allow the Randolph to land its cargo of convicts at Port Phillip, and ordered the ship to sail on to Sydney. When the Port Phillip District gained independence from New South Wales in 1851 and became the colony of Victoria, Charles La Trobe was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor. He had the power to veto or reverse bills of the Council, control the Civil Lists and the proceeds from the sale of crown land, and initiate all budgetary legislation. In August 1851 La Trobe reported the discovery of gold in Ballarat. As a result of the find, he was forced to raise the wages of public servants to keep them working instead of flocking to the gold fields. He also imposed a hefty monthly gold license tax to discourage other workers from abandoning their jobs and heading to either Ballarat or Bendigo. This very unpopular decision became an early catalyst that would lead up to the Eureka Rebellion in December 1854. By December 1852, at age 51, the pressures of government had taken there toll on La Trobe. He thus submitted his resignation to England, but continued to govern Victoria for a further 18 months until his replacement Sir Charles Hotham arrived in Australia. La Trobe‟s wife Sophie had become ill during his last years in Victoria. Unable to wait for her husband to be relieved of duty she returned to Europe and died at her family home on January 30, 1854. La Trobe sailed from Australia for England on May 6, 1854 and retired from public service. On October 3, 1855 La Trobe married Sophie‟s widowed sister, Rose. In retirement he had planned to write his life story with the title : “A Colonial Governor.” However, towards the end of his life his sight failed and he was unable to complete it. La Trobe died on December 4, 1875 aged 74, in Litlington, Sussex and was buried at a local churchyard close to his last home. He was survived by his second wife, as well as a son and five daughters. Places in Victoria named after Charles La Trobe include: La Trobe University and La Trobe Street in central Melbourne The Latrobe Valley in southeastern Victoria Mount Latrobe on Wilsons Promontory La Trobe Terrace in Geelong 3 Photography is the result of combing several technical discoveries. Over 2,000 years ago Chinese philosopher Mo Di and Greek mathematicians Aristotle and Euclid described a pinhole camera. In the 6th century CE, Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles used a type of camera obscura in his experiments, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965-1040) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera, Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) discovered silver nitrate, and Georges Fabricius (1516-1571) discovered silver chloride. And Wilhelm Homberg described how light darkened some chemicals (photochemical effect) in 1694. John Herschel made many contributions to photographic methods. He invented the cyanotype process, now known as the "blueprint". He was the first to use the terms "photography", "negative" and "positive". He discovered sodium thiosulphate solution to be a solvent of silver halides in 1819. The solution was used to "fix" pictures and make them permanent. He made the first glass negative in late 1839. The first permanent photo- etching was an image pro- The World’s First Photograph duced in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce (See box). Working in One summer day in France in 1826, conjunction with Louis Nicéphore Niepce took the world's Daguerre, Niépce experi- first photograph. It's a photo of some mented with silver com- farm buildings and the sky. It took an pounds based on Johann exposure time of 8 hours. The picture Schultz discovery in 1816 is now so faint it has to be tilted in that a silver and chalk order for the light to catch it just mixture darkens when right, to see it. exposed to light. Niépce died No-one is exactly sure what process in 1833, but Daguerre or chemicals were used. The current continued the work, culmi- theory about how the photograph was nating with the development taken is that Niepce coated the 8”x Nicéphore Niépce 6.5” pewter plate with bitumen, a petroleum derivative sensitive to light. After it spent those 8 hours hardening, he washed the plate with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum. This dissolved the portions of the bitumen that didn't 'see' direct light, so didn't harden. Niepce called his work a "heliograph," in a tribute to the power of the sun. The original picture is kept at the University of Texas in a new air tight case, where it has been on display since 1964. 4 of the daguerreotype in 1837. Daguerre took the first ever photo of a person in 1839 when, while taking a daguerreotype of a Paris street, a pedestrian stopped for a shoe shine, long enough to be captured by the long exposure. Eventually, France agreed to pay Daguerre a pension for his formula, in exchange for his promise to announce his discovery to the world as the gift of France, which he did in 1839. Daguerre’s photo of Paris. The image shows a street, but because of the over ten minute exposure time Meanwhile, Hercules Florence had already the moving traffic does not appear. The exceptions created a very similar process in 1832, are the man and shoe-shine boy at the bottom left naming it Photographie, and English (arrowed) who stood still long enough to have their inventor William Fox Talbot had earlier images captured. discovered another means to fix a silver process image but had kept it secret. After reading about Daguerre's invention, Talbot refined his process so that portraits were made readily available to the masses. By 1840, Talbot had invented the calotype process, which creates negative images. Talbot's famous 1835 print of the Oriel window in Lacock Abbey is the oldest known negative in existence. Many advances in photographic glass plates and printing were made through the 19th century. However, it was in 1884 that the next big step was achieved when George Eastman developed the technology of film to replace photographic plates, and founded the famous Kodak company. 24 years later in 1908, colour photography was invented by Gabriel Lippmann who won the Noble Laureate in Physics for his efforts. Digital Photography Traditional film-based photography had a number of frustrating drawbacks.