Moreland name change: business, sport, community groups react to city council’s new name Merri-bek

While Moreland Council will change its “racist” name, the path forward is not so easy — or cheap — for community groups with the same name.

Community and sporting groups are reluctant to follow Moreland Council’s decision to change its “racist” name, citing costly brand over hauls and no grassroots push to ditch the offending word.

The groups, which also include businesses, education and health organisations with ‘Moreland’ in their names, are in no hurry to adopt the council’s new name ‘Merri-bek’.

Moreland Health Group director John Starr said it was a “vexed” issue for businesses like his that had built a reputation under the Moreland name.

Mr Starr wanted the council to help cover the costs associated with businesses adopting a new identities.

“It’s going to be an expensive process, changing my signage and so forth, but I’ll look a bit insensitive if I don’t change it, so I’m in a bit of a quandary on what to do,” he said.

Mr Starr said he had already registered the name ‘Merri-bek Health Group’ to “safeguard” himself, but was “a long way off” making the change after 15 years his firm’s current name.

“My main thing is, people know your business from that name – that’s the thing that’s not being taken into consideration,” he said.

“A bunch of people in the council can say ratepayers can foot the bill, but the cost to business – the council hasn’t come out and said ‘we can help businesses with that change’.”

Management at Brunswick watering hole The Moreland Hotel declined to enter into the name change debate. Picture: Facebook

Moreland City Soccer Club treasurer Robert Camilleri said no one had ever complained about his club’s name in more than 100 years.

“I don’t think we celebrate racism at our club, we embrace a real diversity of different cultures and races and those players and members have no issue with the name Moreland as it stands today,” he said.

“It’s not an issue at our club and we don’t look at the name Moreland as a racist name, we look at Moreland representing our members and what our members stand for.”

Moreland Eagles Football Club president George Yurtseven said smaller clubs like his already struggled to cover their costs and did not need the added challenge of sourcing new logo designs and uniforms.

“This is a community club, we can’t afford much,” he said.

“Changing names, that’s OK, there’s not a problem there, but we’d have to change everything else as well.

“We’d have to get extra sponsors, and for community clubs, they don’t get many sponsors, we just do our fundraising and functions.

Moreland sporting clubs and businesses are reluctant to change their branding to reflect the city’s new name. Picture: Facebook

Moreland Rotary Club president Trevor Moyle said he supported the council’s decision “in principle” but was in no rush to copy it as more “pressing” matters took priority for his members.

“It’s not the number one item in every meeting for us — we’re not in that state of mind,’’ Mr Moyle said.

“We want to see council go through their process and for that to be fully followed through and then we’ll sit down and make a decision ourselves — I cannot pre-empt what that decision might be.

Evan Mulholland at the Institute of Public Affairs believed ratepayers across the northern suburbs wanted councils to “get the basic services right before obsessing over clearing their conscious (sic) with woke activism”.

He disputed the claim Moreland was a racist name, citing an academic report commissioned by the council that found no historical record of Dr Farquhar McCrae’s motivations or intentions for naming his colonial Melbourne property Moreland in 1839 and that “Calling his property Moreland – more than a decade after slavery was abolished, by which time public opinion across the British Empire had firmly turned against slavery – did not necessarily symbolise an affirmation of slavery by Farquhar”.

“Dr Farquhar – a surgeon, not a slave owner – named Moreland after his grandfather’s plantation,” Mr Mulholland said.

“By that time, slavery had ended in Jamaica.”

Moreland Primary School would have to follow the Education Department’s process if it wished to change its name. Picture: Facebook

The state government said it would not touch the name of Moreland Rd unless the council initiated the process.

The council this week clarified it had no plans to push for changes beyond the municipality name itself.

“Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Elders have only asked us to rename our city and that’s what we’re focusing on,” Mayor Mark Riley said.

“Organisations using ‘Moreland’ may choose change their name but there is no expectation from us that they do so.”

Moreland Primary School acting principal Maria Giordano could not be reached for comment, but the Education Department said the school community could “consider presenting a proposal for a name change” if it was prepared to follow the department’s process.

The council maintains a large majority of participants in a community consultation chose Merri-bek as their preferred option for the new name of Moreland City Council after Elders from the Traditional Owner community and other community representatives asked for a change because of links to an 18th century Jamaican sugar plantation that had hundreds of slaves.

Wurundjeri elder Ian Hunter, however, recently slammed the change, saying the council had the translation wrong and that the decision would not help Victoria’s Indigenous community.

Independent councillor Oscar Yildiz was not surprised about the backlash, calling the consultation process “a load of rubbish” and the council vote rushed and “arrogant”.

“It hasn’t resonated with the average ratepayer of Moreland,” he said.

“Every day, I see people saying ‘It will always stay as Moreland for me’, ‘Over my dead body will I ever call it Merri-bek’.

“And it will cause a lot of confusion for a long time to come because there’ll be those mixed messages, because you’ve got your rubbish bin that’s got ‘Moreland’ but the letters you’re receiving have got ‘Merri-bek’.

“There are going to be people going ‘hang on, is this letter supposed to be addressed to me, because I don’t live in Merri-bek, I live in the City of Moreland, where’s Merri-bek?’”

“The elderly or the people that weren’t as aware of the name change, when they get their rates notices next year and find out they’re living in the City of Merri-bek, our switchboard will be inundated.”

Moreland Labor, Moreland Health Centre, Moreland Community Childcare Centres, Moreland City Youth Boxing, and Crossfit Moreland did not respond to requests for comment.