Lalor’s association with its namesake – activist-turned-politician Peter Lalor – is becoming increasingly tenuous.
And it’s all because of the confusing pronunciation of the Eureka Stockade leader’s family name.
Ballarat and District Genealogical Society’s Jennifer Burrell said the original pronunciation was ‘Law-ler’ – no emphasis on the second syllable – and probably said best with an Irish accent.
It was not pronounced ‘Lay-lor’, as most people prefer today, Ms Burrell said, emphatically.
Two of Lalor’s long-time residents, Honor Mackie and Dot Hodgson, say it’s only as a recent phenomenon that residents have mispronounced the suburb’s name.
Mrs Hodgson doesn’t correct their slips of the tongue as “they’ll usually correct themselves”.
But Mrs Mackie has less tolerance for the misdemeanour.
Peter Lalor entered Australian folklore when he led the Eureka Rebellion, an event often referred to as the birth of democracy in Australia.
He was later elected to the Victorian Legislative Council. The federal electorate in Melbourne’s west named in his honour is still pronounced as it was originally.
Largely rural until the electrification of the Whittlesea railway line as far as Thomastown in 1921, Lalor only became more suburban in the late 1940s.
