Walk the Block with Whittlesea U3A
Wear your Whittlesea U3A name badge and top (if you have one)
| Date: | Thursday 19 March 2015 | |
| Time: | 12:30pm | |
| Where: | May Road Lalor |
On Thursday 19th March Whittlesea U3A participated in the annual Victoria Walk – Walk the Block.
Walk the Block is all about getting the Victorian community away from their chairs and desks and onto their feet to help create a happy and healthier community.
At Whittlesea U3A we walked from the Seniors Citizen’s Rooms at May Road Lalor, carrying our banner, and finding the history of Lalor and its settlement.
Lalor is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne’s central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Whittlesea. At the 2006 Census the suburb had a population of 19,561 and is home to many from different parts of the world including emerging communities.
Lalor is named after Peter Lalor, leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion and later member of the Victorian parliament. The eastern and western borders of Lalor are defined by Darebin Creek and Merri Creek respectively.
Lalor was a part of Thomastown until the end of World War II, when a group of ex-servicemen formed the Peter Lalor Home-Building Cooperative Society to provide low-cost homes. They chose east of today’s railway station to be the site of the new developments and a town planner was hired to design a garden for the suburb. Lalor Post Office was opened on 1 August 1949.
In 1954 Lalor Primary School was opened, reaching an enrolment of 1,000 by 1971, at which point a further three primary schools were founded. Lalor Primary School was built on land owned by the Evans family and held its 50th anniversary in 2004. Lalor also has three public secondary schools: Peter Lalor College, Lalor Secondary College, and Lalor North Secondary College.
The Lalor Shopping Centre is located between Station St and May Rd, which parallel High Street, on the opposite side of the railway line. Lalor Plaza and Lalor Hub are small enclosed shopping malls located respectively in the eastern and western residential areas of the suburb. We walked through the Lalor hub reading the panels and murals on the wall which took us through the history from 1840. Lalor challenged us with it’s pronunciation and learning this history as we walked. Although many members had lived in the area for some time they joined in and were impressed as they had not noticed these history panels when doing their weekly shopping in the Mall. We all talked and chatted to bystanders taking the opportunity to tell all about the University of the Third Age and encouraging them to walk with us.
Back to our classes, fitter and wiser. Many going to Bocce, Bowling and computer classes.