Moreland news: Coburg, Brunswick and stories that mattered in 2010
Moreland, how you’ve changed in a decade. The coronavirus was ages away, but there was plenty of heartbreak, controversy, and wonderful stories to tell in this corner of Melbourne’s north. Here’s what made news across the municipality in 2010.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Our small part of the world was a very different place just 10 years ago. There was no coronavirus, but no end of drama. Julia Gillard took over the Prime Ministership from Kevin Rudd, Collingwood and St Kilda played out a Grand Final draw, and massive floods hit the state. Locally, there was plenty of controversy, community debate, joy and wonderful stories to tell. Here’s what made the news across Moreland in 2010.
JANUARY
Moreland Council commissioned artists to use materials such as witches hats, bollards, scaffolding, posters, electronic signs and wheelie bins to create temporary artworks to transform council worksites such as road construction into public art.
Moreland’s late-night music venues felt the pain of the State Government’s more stringent approach to security in licensed venues.
Moreland Council said it would build its first constructed wetlands along Merri Creek to stop stormwater pollution entering the waterway. Three sites were earmarked – Merri and Edgars Creek in Coburg North, and Fawkner’s Jukes Rd and Lowson St.
FEBRUARY
Volunteers were guarding Moreland charity shops at night toward off scavengers and illegal rubbish dumpers. Moreland Council – as part of its 100-day Our Moreland, Looking Good campaign in 2009 – prosecuted and fined 30 people up to $2000 each for illegal dumping, often at op-shops.
Bereaved parents said profiteering was behind a plan to rip out trees at the Fawkner graveyard where their babies were buried. But Fawkner Memorial Park’s management said it needed to remove 14 trees in March from the Garden of Angels for occupational health and safety reasons.
MARCH
Brunswick traders launched a new campaign to tackle what they said was a worsening problem of drunks trashing Sydney Rd.
Oak Park’s ageing public pool and neighbouring reserve would be transformed into a sporting supercentre for Melbourne’s north under a $38 million plan unveiled. As well as a new aquatic centre with a theme park-sized super slide, the ambitious proposal included a massive indoor sports stadium and health club, and outdoor multipurpose synthetic sports fields.
Melissa Callaghan no longer used the designated school crossing beside Brunswick East Primary School when dropping off or picking up her daughter Lily, 9 at the time. After two near-misses in one month, she said it was simply not safe. The incidents and others like it led to the Leader launching a campaign to urge parents and other motorists to take extra care during school drop-off and pick-up times.
APRIL
Sensors that detect when parked cars overstayed time limits were set to be installed in key retail hubs under a radical shake-up of Moreland’s parking regime.
A new private hospital generating hundreds of jobs and boosting Moreland’s economy by about $52 million a year was set to become the Coburg Initiative’s debut project. Construction was expected cost up to $150m and begin in 2011 on Moreland Council land beside Coburg Town Hall in Bell St.
A playgroup network of 130 families desperately sought a new venue after losing its Moreland Council-owned Brunswick West home of 11 years. But West Brunswick Playgroup said its network of 13 groups, consisting of about 195 children, would likely be torn apart, leading to financial and social losses.
MAY
Moreland Council blamed a police shortage for rising crime and vowed to lobby for its share of the extra 1966 officers promised in the State Budget.
Fifty-nine illegal rooming houses were uncovered during the biggest yet crackdown on rogue accommodation providers in Moreland. Homelessness service providers were reportedly telling clients to sleep in cars rather than risk their safety in rooming houses. The Leader reported that Moreland Council had uncovered 59 illegal rooming houses since the previous July.
JUNE
In a bid to boost a continuing trade slump it blamed on extended clearway times, Sydney Rd Brunswick Traders’ Association began running television advertisements in regional Victoria.
To stop a blowout in missing bin claims, anyone requesting a replacement Moreland Council bin had to sign a statutory declaration stating that it had been lost, stolen or destroyed.
JULY
The Victorian Planning Minister declared the entire Edgars Creek parkland, in Coburg North, crown land. The announcement followed a long community campaign to keep the 10.7ha site – most of which had been owned by VicRoads since the 1970s for a once-planned freeway link – in public hands.
Moreland’s Council’s Community Indicators 2010 survey revealed many parents in Coburg and Coburg North were worried about the dearth of secondary education alternatives available to them.
The future of Coburg City Oval was secured. The fate of the 15,000-capacity oval had been in doubt since the release of a draft masterplan for the $1 billion revamp of central Coburg, which included an option to bulldoze the oval for apartments and public open space. However, Moreland councillors agreed to permanently retain it.
AUGUST
Residents say lives were being put at risk as authorities played a blame game over traffic lights at the busy pedestrian crossing at the West St, Glenroy.
For Nathan Rao, August marked another stage in a healing process that continued almost four years after a rooming house fire that claimed the lives of two friends. The 31-year-old was presented with an Australian Bravery Medal for saving four people, including a boy aged 7, from a fire above a Pizza Hut restaurant in Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
SEPTEMBER
Moreland Council said a baby boom had stretched the municipality’s 30 childcare centres and 28 kindergartens to their limit.
A Pascoe Vale South woman immortalised her beloved deceased dog by having her ashes turned into jewellery. Barb Bourke paid a Mordialloc company $800 to turn the 15-year-old blue heeler into two gemstones mounted on silver rings.
When Oak Park premmie twins Milly-Rose and Lachlan turned one, it wasn’t just a milestone. It was be testament to their strength and the love and dedication of their parents and the hundreds of medical staff. The twins were born at 24 weeks’ gestation – 16 weeks early – with their eyes fused shut, in an emergency caesarean at the Royal Women’s Hospital on September 21, 2009.
OCTOBER
The first platypus sighting in Merri Creek in more than three decades prompted speculation they may recolonise the area.
About $120 million was to be pumped into Moreland’s bike infrastructure over the coming decades to cope with the cycling boom sweeping the municipality.
NOVEMBER
Moreland Council released its five-volume Coburg Initiative outlining an ambitious 20-year urban renewal masterplan expected to create 9800 new jobs, pouring $3.2 billion each year into Coburg’s economy and turning the suburb into Melbourne’s ‘‘northern gateway’’.
Labor’s Jane Garrett vowed to do her best to deliver on election commitments for the Brunswick electorate, even though her party lost government in the state election.
The new Coburg Night Market proved a hit with Moreland residents.
DECEMBER
Brunswick Creche and Day Nursery said lax enforcement of backyard beekeeping rules threatened the safety of children in its care. Parents said staff had been forced to rush children indoors twice a week on average due to swarms of bees migrating from an absent neighbour’s hives.
Moreland Council copped criticism for spending more than $240,000 of ratepayers’ money on consultants to buy, install and take down Christmas decorations.