Division of La Trobe

The Division of La Trobe is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the outer eastern/south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was originally located closer to the city, but redistributions moved it further south-east. It originally included the suburbs of Croydon, Dandenong, Ferntree Gully and Ringwood. As of 2005, the Division is roughly Y-shaped, centred around the Cardinia Reservoir. It includes the suburbs of Boronia, Belgrave and Ferntree Gully in the north-west, the suburbs of Berwick, Beaconsfield and Officer in the south, and the towns of Gembrook, Emerald and Cockatoo.

The Division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 11 May 1949, and was first contested at the 1949 Federal election. It was named after Charles La Trobe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria. The Division is currently a very marginal Labor seat. The first person to hold the seat was Richard Casey, Baron Casey, later the sixteenth Governor-General of Australia and the last of three Australian politicians to be elevated to the British House of Lords. The Division of Casey, which borders this Division to the north, is named after him. In 1961, the division was the subject of a book, Parties and People: A Survey Based on the La Trobe Electorate, by Creighton Burns.