Peter Lalor (1827-1889), Eureka stockade leader and politician, was born on 5 February 1827 in Ireland. He was educated at Carlow College in Dublin and became a civil engineer. In October 1852 he migrated to Melbourne as he was attracted by the goldfield discoveries. Peter found work on the construction of the Melbourne-Geelong railway. He also became a city merchant with his brother Richard and an Irishman selling wine spirits and tobacco. Early in 1854 he moved to Ballarat to try his luck at the goldfields. This ended his career as a city merchant. He then joined the Ballarat Reform League, formed by miners to protest high license fees, police mistreatment, lack of representation, and shortage of land. Peter Lalor was chosen as leader by …show more content…
In 1855 Lalor was elected on the Victoria Legislative Council which included representatives from the goldfields. He then served in the lower house up to 1887 in Ballarat and Geelong areas. Lalor also worked as a land agent and was a director of mining companies. He served as postmaster general (1875), commissioner of trade and customs (1875, 1877–80), and speaker of the Assembly from 1880 to 1887. With strong faith and commitment Lalor was able to help and represent the miners rights for their land, avoid high taxes they were paying, obtain compensation for victims, remove police mistreatment and have representation with political leaders. His faith and desire protected the local industry, supported a national education system and also immigration. His family and his own country, Ireland had a strong influence on the choices he made from childhood to adulthood. His family were supporters of Ireland's freedom from British rule and of the rights of the Irish poor. Lalor wanted to take a leadership role to fix similar issues people were having here and therefore fought for peoples rights. He had a strong sense of justice and needed to stand up for what he believed …show more content…
His objectives as leader was to establish fairness and independence of the people. He wanted the poor man to obtain equal justice with the rich man. He held strong catholic values. Peter Lalor was inspired by his family and chose to do the work he did because he wanted the people to have the same rights as anyone else and fought for the justice of the people who didn’t have mining licenses during the gold mining era. Peter believed in equal rights for the people and established this when he took on the leadership role to be the voice to protect the people against high licence fees and police mistreatment When Peter Lalor was elected as leader, he was committed to defend the rights and liberties of the people. He would do this at all costs. Peter Lalor ensured that he was able to change the rights of the people who at the time were treated unfairly by the more powerful and wealthy. How are their lives reflected in these two