Journal of the C. J. La Trobe Society Inc. Vol 17, No 2, July 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 La Trobeana Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Inc Vol 17, No 2, July 2018 ISSN 1447‑4026 The C J La Trobe Society Inc was formed in 2001 to promote understanding and appreciation of the life, work and times of Charles Joseph La Trobe, Victoria’s first Lieutenant‑Governor. www.latrobesociety.org.au La Trobeana is published three times a year: in March, July and November. The journal publishes peer‑reviewed articles, as well as other written contributions, that explore themes in the life and times of Charles Joseph La Trobe, aspects of the colonial period of Victoria’s history, and the wider La Trobe family. La Trobeana is kindly sponsored by Mr Peter Lovell LOVELL CHEN ARCHITECTS & HERITAGE CONSULTANTS Editorial Committee Helen Armstrong and Dianne Reilly (Honorary Editors) John Botham, Loreen Chambers, Susan Priestley, Fay Woodhouse Designer Michael Owen [email protected] For copies of guidelines for contributors and subscription enquiries contact: The Honorary Secretary: Dr Dianne Reilly AM The C J La Trobe Society P O Box 65 Port Melbourne Vic 3207 Phone: 9646 2112 Email: [email protected] FRONT COVER Thomas Woolner, 1825‑1892, sculptor Charles Joseph La Trobe, 1853 Bronze portrait medallion showing the left profile of Charles Joseph La Trobe, diam. 24cm. Signature and date incised in bronze l.r.: T. Woolner Sc. 1853: / M La Trobe, Charles Joseph, 1801‑1875. Accessioned 1894 Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria, H5489 2 • Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Contents 4 A Word from the President 42 Susan Priestley The La Trobe Golden Testimonial Articles 50 Wallace Kirsop 5 Doug McCann Kingsborough’s ‘Antiquities of Mexico’: Charles Joseph La Trobe and the some notes on Australian-held sets foundation of the Royal Society of Victoria Reports and Notices 16 Irene Kearsey La Trobe’s First Immigrants: 53 La Trobe’s Cottage report the 1839 voyage of the ‘David Clark’. 54 Forthcoming events 22 Ian D. Clark From Amiability to Acrimony: 55 Contributions welcome William Le Souëf and his relationships with George Augustus Robinson and Charles Joseph La Trobe 33 Max Waugh ‘A Beautiful Site for a Town’: Governor Sir Richard Bourke and the establishment of the Port Phillip Settlement 1835-1837 Vol. 17, No. 2 • July 2018 • 3 A Word from the President he second edition of La Trobeana for days of settlement. Captain William Lonsdale’s 2018 is no exception to the established appointment as resident Police Magistrate for Tpattern, and contains a variety of Port Phillip and his arrival towards the end of significant articles based on valuable research by 1836 led to the imposition of order on this new scholars in the field of colonial history. outpost of empire. Governor Bourke’s visit to the settlement early in 1837, the development Dr Doug McCann, who gave an excellent of Melbourne and the naming of its principal presentation at the Society’s end‑of‑year streets are described in detail, as well as Bourke’s event last year, has developed his research to overland tour to Geelong and Mount Macedon, contribute to these pages the article ‘Charles and back to Melbourne. Joseph La Trobe and the foundation of the Royal Society of Victoria’. As he so rightly points out, Susan Priestley’s scholarly and witty article it was La Trobe who, ‘more than any other on the locally‑made Testimonial Gold Vase, influential person at the time, over a long period, presented to La Trobe at the valedictory ball desired, and actually argued for, the creation held in December 1853 prior to his departure of a new viable general scientific society, and from the colony the following May, gives a unquestionably helped bring it into being’. marvellously detailed account of its design and those who made this splendid creation. The ‘La Trobe’s First Immigrants: the 1839 later disappearance of the magnificent vessel into Voyage of the David Clark’, which featured as the the mists of time is only slightly compensated Friends of La Trobe’s Cottage Annual Lecture by the presence, since 1986, at the National in 2016, demonstrates Irene Kearsey’s talent for Gallery of Victoria of the glorious silver and glass research in the details she has discovered about candelabrum centrepiece which was purchased those very early settlers. They included William for La Trobe in London with remaining Bell the founder of Gulf Station, who arrived on testimonial funds. the first ship to bring assisted immigrants from Great Britain direct to Port Phillip. It makes Professor Wallace Kirsop has contributed fascinating reading. a valuable corollary to Dr Sylvia Whitmore’s Melbourne Rare Book Week Lecture of last No stranger to the pages of our journal is year, ‘La Trobe, Lord Kingsborough and the Professor Ian D. Clark, of Federation University, Antiquities of Mexico’ (La Trobeana, vol.16, no.3, whose research interests, among others, embrace November 2017), in which he expertly analyses Aboriginal and colonial history. His paper, ‘From the provenance of sets of this magnificent work Amiability to Acrimony: William Le Souëf in Australian libraries. and his relationships with George Augustus Robinson and Charles Joseph La Trobe’, is the In summary, this edition provides a feast first detailed examination of William Le Souëf, of reading on diverse topics with relevance to the relatively little‑known fifth and final La Trobe. Assistant Protector in the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, and his relationships with both the Diane Gardiner AM Chief Protector and La Trobe. Hon. President C J La Trobe Society Dr Max Waugh’s article, ‘A Beautiful Site for a Town: Governor Sir Richard Bourke and the establishment of the Port Phillip Settlement 1835‑1837’, transports us back to the earliest 4 • Journal of the C J La Trobe Society Charles Joseph La Trobe and the foundation of the Royal Society of Victoria By Dr Doug McCann Doug McCann is a science historian and an honorary fellow at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne. He is co-editor and co-author of several books, including Burke and Wills: the Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition (2011). This ground-breaking paper is a revised version of an address given to C J La Trobe Society members at the Royal Society of Victoria, 24 November 2017. harles Joseph La Trobe (1801‑1875), connection with the society might appear to be the Superintendent of the Port a little tenuous. To appreciate the connection Phillip District of New South of La Trobe with the Royal Society of Victoria Wales (1839‑1851) and Lieutenant‑ however, we need to understand that the society GovernorC of the fledgling Colony of Victoria had its direct origin in the foundation of two (1851‑1854), has been deservedly widely‑praised earlier scientific societies established in 1854 just by historians for his part in fostering, contributing a few weeks after La Trobe had left Victoria. The to, and often initiating the foundation of many of first of the new societies, the Victorian Institute Victoria’s enduring public entities and cultural for the Advancement of Science, was initiated institutions. As historian Alan Gross stated: at a public meeting on 15 June 1854. By this ‘many of Melbourne’s greatest institutions date time La Trobe had already departed Victoria six from La Trobe’s time’.1 These institutions span a weeks earlier, on 6 May 1854, on the steamship wide spectrum of social activities and cultural life, Golden Age, after a dutiful, and sometimes including schools and churches, the University contentious, service of ‘14 years 7 months and of Melbourne, the Public Library, the Botanic 6 days’3 as appointed leader of the settlement and Gardens, the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, colony. To comprehend La Trobe’s influence the Melbourne Hospital, the Mechanics’ on the founding of the new scientific societies Institution, the Philharmonic Society, even the in 1854 we need to examine the pre‑history of Yan Yean Reservoir, and many others.2 these new entities and the incubation period of the study of natural history and science in On the other hand, little has been written Victoria from the late 1830s through to the about La Trobe’s influence on the formation of early 1850s. the Royal Society of Victoria. This omission is understandable because the Royal Society The omission of La Trobe from the of Victoria, under that title, did not come into history is even more striking in the only being until late in 1859, over five years after reasonably significant history of the Royal La Trobe had left Victoria. So, at first sight, his Society of Victoria written to date, by former Vol. 17, No. 2 • July 2018 • 5 Unknown engraver Crown Lands Office, Melbourne, 1858 Wood engraving Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria, IMN30/01/58/53 This building was situated on the north side of La Trobe Street West, between Queen and William Streets. The embryonic Museum of Natural History was housed in two rooms on the upper floor from 1854 to 1856, after which the collections were moved to the University of Melbourne by Professor Frederick McCoy. Meetings of the Philosophical Society of Victoria in 1854‑55 were held in the Museum, as were the initial meetings of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855. Later meetings were held at the Mechanics’ Institution president R.T.M. Pescott, for the centenary of Barry and Rev. Alexander Morison. Several of the society in 1959. The article titled ‘The Royal these members were natural history collectors Society of Victoria from then, 1854 to now, and friends and supporters of Charles La Trobe.