Homes for the people : the Peter Lalor home building co-operative: 1946 - 2004

Scollay, Moira

Homes for the people : the Peter Lalor home building co-operative: 1946 - 2004

Date

2010

Authors

Scollay, Moira

Abstract

Hidden within the Melbourne suburb of Lalor, lies an intriguing story. Named to honour the leader of the Eureka Rebellion, the Peter Lalor Homebuilding Co-operative Society was formed after World War II during a chronic housing shortage. It was composed mainly of ex-servicemen and their families who were driven by a self-help ethos and a determination to see working-class men and women fulfil the great Australian dream of owning their own homes. Further, the members aspired to create a new co-operative way ofliving dedicated 'to those who died to make this a better world.' Subsequent residents from new immigrant groups shared some similar dreams, but transformed the social landscape. The timescale of the thesis - 1946 to 2004 - provides the opportunity to trace the sweeping changes that occurred in this suburban setting. This thesis analyses the co-operative and situates its genesis within the international and Australian co-operative movements, the 'garden city' movement, the Australian labour movement and Catholic social doctrine. The members adapted these ideas into their own unique experiment. Prosopography has provided the methodology for understanding this remarkable community: home by home, family by family, street by street. New archival material has emerged on the Victorian co-operative movement and, particularly, from the Peter Lalor membership through the provision of co-operative and personal records, and written and oral testimony. I argue that the co-operative provided affordable housing for a community of 800 people, and the members gained enhanced control over their lives through the creation of social capital - a civic space between the individual and the state. By this means they were ahead of their time in addressing a democratic deficit. The individual ethnic communities of Lalor subsequently formed what I have termed 'parallel communities'. They co-existed in Lalor, not necessarily through hostility, but parallel nonetheless. Each created its own institutions of social capital but collectively they lacked cohesion. Ultimately there are lessons for the 21st century as we face the further challenges of affordable housing and community development. Apart from these conclusions, the history of Lalor has been resurrected from the footnotes of history. We meet some inspirational leaders, whose biographies have been written for the first time, but ultimately this is the history of ordinary men and women co-operating in the creation of a community. Some of their stories are told here; they are worth telling.