Lalor, Victoria

Lalor was a part of Thomastown. In 1945, Leo Purcell, while a patient at a military hospital on the Atherton Tableland, worked out a scheme to provide low-cost homes, that in February 1947 became known as "Peter Lalor Co-operative Family Scheme" and with a group of ex-servicemen formed the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative Society.[4][5][6] The scheme was sponsored by the ex-servicemen's committee of the central executive of the Victorian Labor Party.[7][8] They chose two hundred and fifty-eight acres east of today's Lalor railway station to be the site of the new developments and the town planner Saxil Tuxen was hired to design a garden suburb.[9][10]

Lalor Post Office was opened on 1 August 1949.[11]

Although the Co-operative succeeded in beginning a program of house building, under-capitalization resulted in the venture being taken over by the War Service Homes Commission in 1954.[12][13]

Originally built as the Mentone Fire station on the corner of Brindisi Street and Mentone Parade, Mentone in 1906, the building was relocated to 24 Vasey Street, Lalor in 1957 to become the Lalor Fire Station.[14] The Station was opened 30 January 1958 and was closed in 1997 and now served by the Epping Fire Station.[15][16][17]

In 2010, Stockade Park was redeveloped. This site, enclosed by Paschke Crescent and leading to Rochdale Square, marks the location of the Peter Lalor home building co-operative's Stockade—an area that housed the tools and materials for the workers of the Co-operative that built Lalor.[18][19]

In 1954, Lalor Primary School was opened, reaching an enrolment of 1,000 by 1971, when a further three primary schools were founded.[12][24] Lalor North Primary School was established in 1971.[25] Lalor East Primary School was established in 1972.[26] Lalor West Primary School was opened in 1973 and merged with Lalor Park Primary School in 2011 to form Lalor Gardens Primary School.[27][28]

Lalor Primary School was built on land owned by the Evans family and held its 50th anniversary in 2004. Several of the surrounding streets are named after members of the Evans family (Evans Street, Ruth Street).

Lalor has two Catholic primary schools: St. Luke's Primary School Lalor established 1961[29][30] and St Catherine's Primary School established in 1983.[31]

Lalor also has three public secondary schools: Lalor Secondary College previously known as Lalor High School, established in 1963,[32] Peter Lalor College previously Lalor Technical School, established in 1968, was reopened as the Peter Lalor Vocational College in 2012[33] and Lalor North Secondary College previously known as Lalor North High School, established in 1977.[34]

The Lalor Shopping Centre is located between Station Street and May Road, which parallel High Street—the main thoroughfare through Lalor—on the opposite side of the railway line. The land was previously owned by the Mann family. David Mann and his wife May (née Thomas, of Thomastown) who purchased it in 1920 and carried on dairy farming until it was sold in 1954.[35][36] Retailers consist of many small specialty shops as well as Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.

The Mann farmhouse Bella Vista, stood just north of the Lalor Library in May Road.[36][37][38]

Lalor Library in May Road

Lalor Plaza in Mckimmies Rd and Lalor Hub in Kingsway Drive are small enclosed shopping malls located respectively in the eastern and western residential areas of the suburb.[36][39]

There are also a number of small shopping strips, including Rochdale Square Shops (named in commemoration of Rochdale the first town built on co-operative principles) located near the Lalor railway station.

In the 2016 Census, there were 22,594 people in Lalor. 44.6% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were Italy 7.3%, Greece 5.8%, Macedonia 4.9%, and Vietnam 4.3%. 29.2% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 11.0%, Macedonian 8.5%, Italian 7.9%, Greek 6.8% and Vietnamese 6.5%.

The most common responses for religion in Lalor were Catholic 24.3%, Eastern Orthodox 15.0%, Islam 14.4% and No Religion 12.8%.[1]

The Whittlesea Community Festival, celebrated since 1998, is held on the third Sunday in March in Lalor at the Whittlesea Public Gardens on Barry Rd, regularly attracting more than 15,000 people.[40][41]

St Lukes Church holds La Festa di San Donato (The Festival of San Donato) annually in August.[42][43][44][45]

The main public spaces for active recreation include City of Whittlesea Gardens which provides access to Craigieburn Bypass Trail, Huskisson Avenue Reserve a favourite spot for picnickers, V.R.Michael Reserve, Partridge Street Reserve, Lalor Reserve and W.A.Smith/Sycamore Reserves along the Darebin Creek that provides a number of recreational facilities.[46]

Lalor United Sloga Football Club was established in 1979.

Lalor has three local Australian Rules Football teams competing in the Northern Football League:[47]

• Lalor Bloods
• Lalor Stars
• West Lalor Dragons, established in 1973.[48]

Lalor has two tennis clubs:

• Lalor Tennis Club, established in 1957 in Sydney Crescent, Lalor.
• West Lalor Tennis Club

The Lalor Bowling Club was established in 1962 and is located on the corner of Sydney Crescent & Gordon Street.[49]

The Lalor Stars Cricket Club was established in 1979 and is located at the W.A Smith Reserve in Darebin Drive.[50]

Golfers play at the course of the Lalor Golf Club on Gillwell Road.[51]

Lalor parkrun was established in 2016 and meets every Saturday at 8am at City of Whittlesea Public Gardens 158 Barry Rd Lalor. Parkrun is a free 5km timed walk or run put on for the community by the community [52]

The Lalor Running Club was established in 2017 and organises several group runs for all abilities in Lalor and surrounds [53]

Lalor railway station and buses serve the suburb.

The Craigieburn Bypass Trail following the Hume Freeway runs to the west of the suburb providing facilities for recreational and commuting cyclists.

• Johns, Gary (1978), Building a suburb: the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative Society / Gary Johns, Melbourne State College

• Scollay, Moira (2012), Lalor: the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative 1946–2012, University of New South Wales Press, ISBN 978-1-74223-333-8 – This book is an edited version of Moira Scollay's PHD thesis entitled: "Homes for the People: The Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative 1946 – 2004", ANU, 2010. The thesis was in two volumes. Only Volume One has been edited into the book. Volume Two is available from the following website rsha.anu.edu.au/peter-lalor and provides additional information, including the prosopography tables to support the book and Video interview by Moira Scollay at the "Peter Lalor Public Meeting Lalor Library and Oral Testimony 2005–2009".
• Peter Lalor Oral History Project, Ford, Ruth, (Book – 1999) Volume 1: Project report, Volume 2: Transcripts. (This oral history is available as both transcripts and video)

• Westgarthtown, an historic village within Lalor

• "Open Learning Australian Places Gazetteer:Lalor" – at youtube.com [Error: unknown archive URL] (archived 19 July 2005)
• Lalor—The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online
• Lalor Traders Association Inc.