Moreland City Council: new name set to be chosen at special council meeting

The name Moreland is set to be consigned to history after ratepayers voted on a new name for the inner-city municipality.

Moreland residents have voted overwhelming for a new name in recently published community consultation results. Picture: Moreland City Council.

Moreland Council will ditch its ‘racist’ name — to the tune of a $1m — in favour of an Indigenous word that means ‘rocky country’.

More than 6000 ratepayers were asked to vote on three preferred names — Wa-dam-buk,

Merri-bek and Jerrang and a fourth option of to keep Moreland — with 3739 voters (59 per cent) choosing Merri-bek.

In a statement, the council said the three Indigenous names selection by the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung community.

The ‘no change’ option received 384 votes, or six per cent of respondents.

The results of the survey, which will be formally acknowledged at a special council meeting on Sunday, are hoped to put an end to the divisive issue over the council’s name, which has been intensely debated in Melbourne since the Greens-led council decided to change its name in December.

“Merri-bek, meaning rocky country, is the clear front runner for our community,” Mayor Mark Riley said on Wednesday.

“Many residents shared that they felt most connected with Merri-bek as it linked the iconic Merri Creek and the rocky country where we live.”

Mr Riley said he believed it was the most engagement the council had achieved on any local matter.

The wheels were put in motion when Moreland received a letter last year from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung community expressing their concerns over the name Moreland due to its ties to a Jamaican slave-trading estate.

The name change is expected to cost upwards of $1m, however this figure is hotly contested by the council.

Earlier this month, residents launched a petition calling for the name change process to be investigated by Local Government Minister Sean Leane, partially on the grounds that a decision to change the name had never been put to the community.

That petition has garnered more than 650 signatures.

Independent Moreland councillor Oscar Yildiz said he was “disgusted” with the decision.

“My frustration and has been from day one is that it was never put it to the community in the first place — not one of the 51 candidates at the last local council election had it on their platform,” Mr Yildiz said.

“It’s going to be a massive waste of money — now more than ever we need to be tightening the belt.

“That money could have been distributed to 20 local sporting groups, or 20 local community groups.”

Mr Yildiz called into question the legitimacy of the survey, and said many residents hadn’t been aware of it and did not speak English as a first language.

Evan Mulholland, from the Institute of Public Affairs, said “the issue isn’t the name change, it’s the political correctness”.

“The consultation has been a sham — it’s clear the Greens had already decided to cancel Moreland.”

“Tokenistic renaming of places will not help anyone, least of all Victoria’s Indigenous community.”