Whittlesea Hertiage Program
Good evening everyone and welcome to the Great Hall for the start of our tenth anniversary heritage celebrations –a genuine milestone. Over the next six months we will enjoy 33 different heritage events, our largest program ever and possibly the largest in Australia. It’s a program that reflects the diversity of our City and our residents. It includes indigenous history and the City’s community life since the earliest days of settlement. Black Saturday It’s a big year for heritage in more ways than one and I will start by saying that one of the most recent events that has happened in our backyard, the Black Saturday bushfires, which occurred on the 7th of February will be part of our heritage for ever. Our hearts and prayers go out to all ... (more ...) |
Recollections of Lalor Shopping Centre (1960-1995)The following article was written by Robert Wuchatsch and first appeared in the Hume Gazette in November 1995. The Lalor Shopping Centre began during the 1950s, shortly after the suburb of Lalor was created by ex-servicemen returning from the Second World War. The land on which the Lalor Shopping Centre stands was previously owned by the Mann family. David Mann and his wife May (née Thomas, of Thomastown) purchased it in 1920 and carried on a dairy farm there. Several Lalor streets today record the Mann family’s presence, the most notable ones being David Street and May Road. Others are William, Jean and Lorne (which should have been Lorna) which were named after three Mann children. Mann’s Crossing, the railway crossing between High and Station Street opposite Safeway, was formerly the Mann family’s driveway and led to their farm Bella Vista. The Mann farmhouse stood just north of the Lalor Library in May Road. The first Lalor Shopping Centre sites were sold ... (more ...) |
