Melbourne to Ballarat
So, let's start at the start, or at least when Peter and his younger brother Richard arrived in Melbourne. They seem to have had no intention of heading for the gold mines, at least not yet. We don't know the precise reason they came to Victoria, except that it probably involved escaping the shockingly terrible occurrences in Ireland, perhaps looking for a new start after the death of their brother James Fintan.
Maybe they feared attention from the authorities because of James's work in seeking Irish independence and land reform, or maybe the possibility of trouble arising from their own involvement in that work, if, indeed, they were involved. Or, maybe it was just two young blokes looking for a place to make a buck, or a quid in those days.
Peter found work on the Melbourne to Geelong railway. He doesn't seem to have been overjoyed with things there. We presume he was labouring, when he was a qualified civil engineer. Although maybe he had a better job than as a navvy, and he just decided the pay was crap and/or the boss was an arsehole. It was probably at this time he met the young woman he later married, Alicia Dunne, the daughter of a local publican. Perhaps becoming engaged focussed Peter's mind more on the need to make that quid.
Maybe they feared attention from the authorities because of James's work in seeking Irish independence and land reform, or maybe the possibility of trouble arising from their own involvement in that work, if, indeed, they were involved. Or, maybe it was just two young blokes looking for a place to make a buck, or a quid in those days.
Peter found work on the Melbourne to Geelong railway. He doesn't seem to have been overjoyed with things there. We presume he was labouring, when he was a qualified civil engineer. Although maybe he had a better job than as a navvy, and he just decided the pay was crap and/or the boss was an arsehole. It was probably at this time he met the young woman he later married, Alicia Dunne, the daughter of a local publican. Perhaps becoming engaged focussed Peter's mind more on the need to make that quid.
Peter and Richard now went into partnership with another Irish bloke to set up what we would call a licensed grocer's, hawking bottled grog, principally wine and spirits, and other less important groceries. We have no information regarding the source of the funds to buy stock and establish the business, although maybe it came from the third partner, whose identity we don't know.
There's a tale a copper called D'Ewes raided and harassed Peter and his partners at this stage for running a "sly grog shanty", selling grog to drink, rather than only bottled stuff, contravening their licence.
However, despite the efforts of some web authors, we've seen no incontrovertible supporting evidence of this, and have significant doubts about it. Why is this important? Well, that bloke D'Ewes enters Peter's life "again" later.
Once more, Peter seems to have tired of being a booze seller fairly quickly, and headed off for the Ovens goldfields. We don't know anything about his time on the Ovens, but when he got back to Melbourne early in 1854 he was able to pay Richard and their partner £800 (the lower end of the possible valuation of this amount in 2016 terms is around $60,000!) for some booze and groceries, which he seems to have intended to, and presumably did, sell on the goldfields of Ballarat, we guess for a very significant profit.
There's a tale a copper called D'Ewes raided and harassed Peter and his partners at this stage for running a "sly grog shanty", selling grog to drink, rather than only bottled stuff, contravening their licence.
However, despite the efforts of some web authors, we've seen no incontrovertible supporting evidence of this, and have significant doubts about it. Why is this important? Well, that bloke D'Ewes enters Peter's life "again" later.
Once more, Peter seems to have tired of being a booze seller fairly quickly, and headed off for the Ovens goldfields. We don't know anything about his time on the Ovens, but when he got back to Melbourne early in 1854 he was able to pay Richard and their partner £800 (the lower end of the possible valuation of this amount in 2016 terms is around $60,000!) for some booze and groceries, which he seems to have intended to, and presumably did, sell on the goldfields of Ballarat, we guess for a very significant profit.
We would love this to have been the Lalor Family Grocers, but it isn't. However, it is a Melbourne grocers from just a couple of years after Peter and co. were operating. We have no details about their shop whatever, including its location, but it would probably have been a business rather like this one. Which again raises a question regarding where the establishment money came from.
However, he didn't set himself up on-going as a merchant, partnering with a Scot to dig a mine on what was called the Eureka Lead (pronounced "leed", a mining term meaning a terrace or a creek or river bed on which gold has settled and geological aeons have passed until it is located anywhere from the earth's surface to far below, wrapped in rock). Quite a few Irish miners were located on that field. Unlike most of the other 25,000 or so diggers in Ballarat, Peter and his mate actually seem to have made some money out of their mine, thus were well able to afford the licence fee (see next page).
The sale of the goods Lalor brought from Melbourne may have led to the vague stories he was an illegal grog seller (again!), which would usually entail selling drinks in a shabby tent. Again, there's no substantive evidence of this, and it seems unlikely he would have done this without someone connecting him to the trade after Eureka, or without the Ballarat authorities at least knowing his name in that connection, and there's no evidence they did.
The sale of the goods Lalor brought from Melbourne may have led to the vague stories he was an illegal grog seller (again!), which would usually entail selling drinks in a shabby tent. Again, there's no substantive evidence of this, and it seems unlikely he would have done this without someone connecting him to the trade after Eureka, or without the Ballarat authorities at least knowing his name in that connection, and there's no evidence they did.