Ballarat’s academic community is mourning the loss of one of the city’s brightest contributors after prominent historian Weston Bate died earlier this week.
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After serving in the airforce during WWII Mr Bate went to study at Melbourne University, where his passion for history began to take centre stage.
Among his most important works were two text commissioned by the-then Shire of Ballarat, Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat from 1978 and 1993’s Life After Gold: Twentieth-Century Ballarat.
The texts have gone on to become known among the definitive documents of Ballarat’s history.
Federation University historian and friend Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter said Mr Bate’s works documenting the history of Ballarat have gone down as models of local history writing.
“His contribution through his books has been profound but also his long career as a teacher and professor at Deakin University has made a huge mark on many students,” Dr Beggs-Sunter said.
Among other aspects of his academic work, the two historic texts have played a key role in shaping the historical accuracy of Ballarat’s most prominent tourist attraction, Sovereign Hill.
Since 2010 Sovereign Hill has hosted the Weston Bate Lecture, where an academic is invited to deliver an oration focusing on local history.
Sovereign Hill chief executive Jeremy Johnson said the content of Lucky City had helped to underpin the development of the attraction after its inception in the 1970.
"For a period of about 140 years he’s provided the accurate blueprint for how the history of our city should be known,” Mr Johnson said. “The fortunate part of his work is the gift of those two publications will endure long after his physical lifetime.”
Mr Bates, who was a prominent lecturer and academic at Deakin University, was responsible for a number of other local history documents such as the histories of Melbourne Grammar, Geelong Grammar and Brighton, where he resided in later life.
In 1997 Mr Bate was awarded with an Order of Australia medal for his contribution to academia.
As recently as May this year Mr Bate presented a lecture at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute detailing the city’s history.
Mr Bate died on Tuesday October 31. He was 93 years old.
