Melbourne Australia

LABURNUN
Laburnum is a residential locality 16 km, east of Melbourne between Box Hill and Blackburn. It is named after a shrub with yellow flowers, also called "golden chain". Laburnum's early settlement and post war residential growth were part of Blackburn's. It is bounded on the south by a linear park along the Blackburn Creek. The housing allotments and streets are well planted with trees. The railway station and the primary school were opened in 1958 and 1964 respectively.

LALOR
Lalor is a postwar residential suburb 17 km. north of Melbourne in the north of what was formerly Thomastown. In 1946 a group of ex-servicemen, mostly with links with the labour movement, formed the Peter Lalor Home-Building Cooperative Society to provide cheap homes during a coming period of high demand and shortage of materials. (Peter Lalor was the leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat, 1854.) They chose land east of today's railway station, and engaged Saxel Tuxen, town planner, to design a garden suburb. Many streets are named after Victoria Cross winners. The Cooperative succeeded in beginning the house building but under-capitalisation resulted in the program being taken over by the War Service Homes Commission. The Cooperative's ambition to form a new community was not unlike the motive for Germantown (later named Wesgarthtown), partly in today's Lalor on the western side of the railway line, which is discussed under Thomastown. Lalor has expanded well beyond the Cooperative's land area.

LANGWARRIN / LANGWARRIN SOUTH
Langwarrin is 43 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Frankston. At the 2006 Census, Langwarrin had a population of 19,823. Langwarrin had two post offices opening after the arrival of the Stony Point railway in 1889. Until December 1994 Langwarrin was part of the City of Cranbourne, formerly the Shire of Cranbourne. At this time the suburb was moved into City of Frankston as part of state-wide reform of local government. Langwarrin's most prominent landscape feature is its large Flora and Fauna reserve (formerly the Langwarrin Military Reserve). Its name is of Aboriginal origin.

LAUNCHING PLACE
Launching Place is 54 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Yarra Ranges. At the 2006 Census Launching Place had a population of 2599. When the Woods Point and other Gippsland gold fields were discovered a track was cut from Melbourne through the vicinity of Launching Place. Supplies were brought in by the track as far as Launching Place, and were then transported further upstream on flat bottomed boats, which were launched at that location, hence the locality's name. Launching Place is located along the Warburton Highway between Woori Yallock and Yarra Junction. The Post Office opened on 12 July 1865. The township was from 1901 until 1965 served by a railway station on the Warburton line.


Laverton

LAVERTON
Laverton, a residential and industrial suburb east of Hoppers Crossing and Werribee, is 18 km. west-south-west of Melbourne. It was named after the Laverton pastoral run, settled by Alfred Langhorne in 1836. In 1886 Staples Wise and Co. promoted the sale of land in the "new and model suburb" of Laverton on behalf of the Federal Investment Company of Australasia. The Laverton railway station was the first one beyond Newport on the line to Geelong. A primary school was opened by the Wesleyan Church on land donated by Staples Wise and Co. in 1887.
In 1914 the Australian Military Forces aviation corps was formed at Point Cook. Eleven years later the Royal Australian Air Force (1921) established an Aircraft Depot at Laverton, seven kilometres to the north of Point Cook. Its first commander was Lieutenant-Colonel R. Williams, and the Laverton Air Base was later named the RAAF Williams Laverton Base. It is served by a separate railway station, "Aircraft", near its entrance. During the 1950s a Housing Commission estate was established at Laverton.

LEAWARRA
Leawarra is a railway station located in the suburb of Frankston, on the Stony Point railway line. Leawarra station opened in 1959 as Railmotor Stopping Place No. 16., and was renamed Leawarra in 1962. The name is of Aboriginal origin.

LILYDALE
The Lilydale township is 35 km. east of Melbourne, and is situated centrally in the former Lillydale shire which was amalgamated with three others to form the Yarra Ranges shire in 1994. The town is spelt with one "l" and the shire was spelt with two. The first settlement in the district was in the flatter, less forested northern side of the shire, adjoining the southern side of the Yarra River, in the late 1830s. That area now comprises Yering and Coldstream.
The discovery of gold in the upper Goulburn River and Woods Point areas in the late 1850s caused the formation of a miners' access track. The place where the Woods Point Road crossed the Olinda Creek was chosen for a town survey. The origin of the name is uncertain. One version is that the Government surveyor, John Hardy, suggested that the town be named Lillydale after hearing his chainman singing a popular song "Lilly Dale". The name was also inspired by the surveyor observing lilies growing in pools of the creek. The other version is that a district surveyor's wife was name Lilly. Council clerks and the local schoolmaster shortened the spelling to Lilydale. Land sales in the town were held in 1860 and within two years there were a post office, a store, a butcher's shop and a hotel. The traffic along the Woods Point Road stimulated business investment in the town in the 1870s and it became a sales centre for livestock from the Coldstream area. The northern area was planted with several vineyards which are discussed under Coldstream. Smaller vineyards adjoined the township. Schools and churches were built in the 1870s, along with a Rechabite Hall which opposed alcohol, whether beer or local wine. On 16 February, 1872, the Lillydale shire was created.


Lower Plenty

LOWER PLENTY
Lower Plenty, at the junction of the Plenty and Yarra Rivers, has a small residential area and substantial open space comprising a golf club and parkland. It is 16 km north-east of Melbourne. Although the locality was settled for grazing in the 1840s, the formation of a township had its beginnings when a bridge was built across the Plenty River for the mining track to the Caledonia Diggings at St. Andrews and thereabouts. An old bridge remains where the original road crossed the river, although it is not the first wooden bridge as that was washed away. The district's isolation from the Eltham railway line did not encourage residential development. The Heidelberg Golf Club was established on a large estate opposite the small town centre in 1929. After the second World War Lower Plenty was a residential, dairying and pastoral district with a population of about 450.

LYNBROOK
Lynbrook is 36 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Casey. At the 2006 Census, Lynbrook had a population of 4490. The suburb was developed by VicUrban, starting in 1994. When completed in 2005, Lynbrook had 1,750 households, approximately 5,200 residents and a total area of 1.85 square kilometres. Prior to 1994, the area now occupied by Lynbrook was part of Lyndhurst. The name is believed to be a derivation of Lyndhurst.

LYNDHURST
Lyndhurst is 35 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Greater Dandenong and Casey. At the 2006 Census, Lyndhurst had a population of 408. Lyndhurst Post Office opened on 1 January 1867. The locality is believed to be named after the town of Lyndhurst in Hampshire, England.

LYSTERFIELD
Lysterfield remains a mostly rural area 35 km. south-east of Melbourne, with Ferntree Gully to its north, Narre Warren to its south and Rowville on its west. It consists of a fertile valley along the Monbulk Creek, low ranges and a basin in which several watercourses drain to the Lysterfield Lake. (The township of Monbulk is several kilometres north-east.) The Monbulk Creek valley was fist settled in 1838 and was known as part of Narre Warren. In 1874 William Saurin Lyster, a selector and operatic impressario, donated land for a primary school. A public meeting thereupon decided on Lysterfield as the name for the district (including Rowville). Farming selections were taken up, with dairying as the main use.