By Richard Cornish
Melting Pot
Lalaor is a post-WWII boom suburb founded by the Peter Lalor Home Building Co-operative Society to provide low cost housing based on a garden city design by Saxil Tuxen, the man who fought to save Melbourne's trams in the 1930s. English is the second language in 63 per cent of homes in Lalor and next Thursday, July 20, sees the Multicultural Night at Lalor Library. This is an intimate community event, the bookstacks as backdrop, with Chinese dancers, Greek dancers, Egyptians and Iranians telling their refugee stories and a performance of the Macedonian flute. In a few weeks the 42nd year La Festa di San Donato sees the Italian community celebrate the miraculous life of Saint Donato with a mass, parade, food and drink.
St Lukes Church , 1a David Street, August 6.30pm-6pm. www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au
Historic Westgarthtown in Lalor.Credit: Richard Cornish
New Brunswick
With its melting pot of people from around the globe, Lalor's streets are lined with productive olive trees and grocers, butchers and bakers with food at 1990s prices. Fernando Cappelluti made Italian pastries for Brunetti's for 31 years and now has his own shop, Pastry Paradise (342 Station St). At BYO restaurant Chu Quy you'll find good pho, great housemade chilli sauce and strong Vietnamese coffee. (81A May Rd). Try wines from the east of Europe such as Macedonian white wine from Dalvina winery, various brands of Macedonian grape brandy antika, Croatian spirits or even the Slovenian soft drink Cockta at Perfect Choice Liquor (Shop 3/36 Rochdale Square).
The Bridge
The sculptural rusted steel bridge by Tonkin Kulaikah Greer architects crosses the Hume Freeway Craigieburn Bypass at Lalor. The view of the city from the bridge is stunning, the Merri Creek grasslands are a bucolic foreground to the backdrop of steel and glass towers of the city, the endless stream of traffic carving an arc through the scene. You can get to it from the Whittlesea Public Gardens - 15ha of native gardens with a large, but drained, water feature. The gardens are interlaced with walking tracks, have good BBQs, a picnic shelter and children's play area. A small wetland bordering housing is filled with croaking frogs. Adjacent is an off-leash dog area.
English is the second language in 63 per cent of homes in Lalor. On July 20 Lalor celebrates Multicultural Night at the local library.
158 Barry Rd, Lalor. Gates are closed from dusk until dawn.
Galada Tamboore
Between the Hume Freeway and Merri Creek is a swathe of grassland, one of the last remnants of the great volcanic plains to the west and north of Melbourne. Called Galada Tamboore by the Wurundjeri people, the area is still rich with wildflowers and kangaroo grass, on which a mob of kangaroos graze early and late in the day. A volcanic escarpment overlooks the grassland from which the Wurundjeri would watch the 'roos before a hunt. The creek is lined with river red gums, some of the older ones still bearing shield or coolamon scars. Look out for snakes in summer and black-shouldered kites hovering over the plains. Shamefully this important landscape is littered with car bodies and dumped household rubbish.
Darebin Creek Trail
Consider the Darebin Creek Trail for a little adventure exploring the north of the city. It is a shared path running north-south for 25km along the banks of the Darebin Creek. For access by train, consider Epping Metro Station in the north and Darebin Metro Station in the south. In Lalor the trail takes on a landscape Jeffrey Smart might have painted with views of remnant grassland and forest dotted with factories and crossed by high voltage power lines.
Industry meets native wetlands on the Darebin Creek Trail, a shared path running north-south for 25km along the banks of the Darebin Creek.Credit: Richard Cornish
Country Village
On the banks of Edgars Creek stands an old Lutheran Church. Across a large open field with an old post and rail fence are the headstones of the Westgarthtown Lutheran Cemetery, the names of the dead chiselled out in German. Westgarthtown was a dairying community settled by German and Wendish (a Slavic minority subsumed by Germany) immigrants in 1850. Lalor and Thomastown are dotted with old bluestone houses from this community, most privately owned. The Ziebell family farmhouse was built between 1851 and 1856 from local bluestone and is open to the public the second Sunday of each month, 1pm-4pm. Here you'll get an insight into early colonial life including the thrifty way the settlers made their own butter, soap, smallgoods, clothes and homes.
Cnr Gardenia Rd and Ainwick Cres, www.westgarthtown.org.au
Lalor's streets are lined with old-school butchers and bakeries.Credit: Richard Cornish
Next Week: Yackandandah
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Productive olive trees are a common sight along residential streets in Lalor.Credit: Richard Cornish