Lalor

Lalor is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Melbourne's central business district in the local government area of the City of Whittlesea.

Lalor is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Melbourne's central business district in the local government area of the City of Whittlesea. At the 2016 Census, Lalor had a population of 22,594.

Lalor was named in honour of Peter Lalor, a leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion and later a member of the Victorian parliament. The suburb was named after the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative Society.In recent times the mispronunciationshas become predominant, whilst the Federal electorate of Lalor is still predominantly pronounced .

The eastern and western borders of Lalor are defined by Darebin Creek and Merri Creek respectively.

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. The scheme was sponsored by the ex-servicemen's committee of the central executive of the Victorian Labor Party. 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.Lalor Post Office was opened on 1 August 1949.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.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. The Station was opened 30 January 1958 and was closed in 1997 and now served by the Epping Fire Station.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.

Many streets in Lalor were named by the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative Society after prominent civilian and military figures.