{"id":1559,"date":"2017-10-08T14:13:52","date_gmt":"2017-10-09T00:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/halsteadpress.com.au\/site\/?p=1559"},"modified":"2022-05-19T16:50:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T02:50:02","slug":"la-trobe-man-thousand-occupations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halsteadpress.com.au\/site\/la-trobe-man-thousand-occupations\/","title":{"rendered":"La Trobe: “A man of a thousand occupations”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Joseph La Trobe, from wherever he now watches, should be eternally grateful that John Barnes chose to be his biographer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Dr Andrew Lemon,\u00a0former President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"La<\/a>The American author, Washington Irving, described Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-75), as \u2018a man of a thousand occupations\u2019. This talented Englishman of Huguenot descent, who became the first Governor of Victoria, was a naturalist, writer, artist, and an enthusiastic tourist, who travelled through Switzerland, Italy, Mexico, and the USA, where he encountered Amerindian tribes and hunted buffalo.<\/p>\n

An untypical and little understood colonial administrator, La Trobe spent nearly 15 years in Melbourne, during which he piloted the young colony through the upheaval of the gold rushes.<\/p>\n

Based on extensive new research, this comprehensive biography of a cultured and deeply religious man of principle includes some of his own evocative watercolours and extracts from personal notebooks and letters.<\/p>\n

Reviews<\/h3>\n

Book review by Dr Andrew Lemon<\/a><\/p>\n