Former
Speakers

Peter Lalor
1827-1889
Speaker: 1880-1887
Legislative Assembly: 1856-1887

Peter Lalor is a name well-known in Australian history as one of the leaders of the miners at the 1854 Eureka Stockade uprising. Like all his predecessors he was born in Ireland, emigrating to Victoria with his brother Richard in 1852. On his arrival in Melbourne Peter Lalor initially found work on the construction of the Melbourne-Geelong railway, but he, his brother Richard Lalor and another Irishman also went into business as wine, spirits and provision merchants.

In 1853 Peter Lalor left Melbourne for the Ovens gold diggings, and in 1854 moved to Ballarat where he staked a claim with Duncan Gillies, a Scot, on the Eureka land. There was a great deal of unrest on the Ballarat diggings due to the imposition of the miners' licence by the government and the practice of 'digger-hunting', and Lalor was involved in agitation over these issues. When matters came to a head over the arrest of three diggers for burning Bentley's Hotel and some 1500 diggers determined on physical resistance, he became their leader. During the attack on the Eureka Stockade in the early hours of Saturday, 3 December 1854, when the police stormed the stockade killing thirty or more diggers and taking over one hundred prisoners, Lalor's left arm was injured. He escaped and reached the home of Father Smyth in Ballarat where the arm was amputated, and was then taken to Geelong where he was cared for by Alicia Dunne, whom he married on 10 July 1855.

A reward had been placed on Lalor's head, but was revoked in March 1855, and the thirteen diggers who had been charged with treason were acquitted in April. The Commissioners appointed to inquire into conditions on the goldfields recommended that the Legislative Council be enlarged to include goldfields' representatives; the suggestion was adopted and Lalor was returned unopposed to represent the area in November 1855.

When the first parliament under the new Constitution was elected in 1856, Lalor was returned unopposed as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for North Grenville, a Ballarat seat. He held the seat until 1859, when he stood for and won the seat of South Grant. In parliament he was not closely attached to any one faction, often preferring to follow his own judgment and conscience in individual matters rather than adhere to a consistent political line. In 1875 he became Commissioner for Customs in the Berry government, and in 1880 he became Speaker.

Lalor remained Speaker until September 1887 when, weakened by ill health and the deaths of his wife and only daughter, he resigned the position and took leave from parliament, of which he was still a Member, to go to San Francisco. He died at the home of his son, Joseph, on 9 February 1889.