Green light for Rosebud West to become Capel Sound after controversial process
A SUBURB in Melbourne’s south has been given the go ahead to change its name after it was featured on a list of Victoria’s ‘struggle towns’.
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ROSEBUD West is on track to be renamed Capel Sound.
The Office of Geographic Names has told Mornington Peninsula Shire it approved the name change and the decision now rested with the shire.
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A movement to change the name began last year after the suburb was named one of Victoria’s “struggle towns”.
Victoria’s worst struggletowns revealed in Dropping off the Edge report
The Registrar of Geographic Names John Tulloch said the council had been advised the decision to rename now “rests entirely with them as the naming authority”.
The council must now advise Mr Tulloch if it wants the Office of Geographic Names to proceed with gazetting and registering the new name.
Mayor Graham Pittock today told Leader the new name would give Rosebud West an “individual character and personality”.
“It looks like the majority of the community has got what they wanted,” he said.
“Our governance team will start changing the names. I don’t think it will cause too many problems.”
His optimism came despite the Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, receiving about 40 objections to the name change while the Office of Geographic Names was considering the new moniker.
Rosebud West residents hope new name will lift struggle town stigma
The controversial decision came almost a year after the council first considered the proposed name change after receiving a report from a group of residents and property owners.
The council then sent letters and surveys to about 5600 Rosebud West ratepayers and residents, receiving 1902 responses.
A council meeting heard that 1065 of the 1902 responses (56 per cent) supported the change.
Councillors voted to back the name in April and sent the application to the Office of Geographic Names for approval.
However, during debate on the issue at the meeting, several councillors raised concerns that the survey was flawed and had confused some community members.
Cr Pittock said today there were no problems with the process.
“The process wasn’t flawed, and neither was the survey,” he said.
“I was ambivalent about the name change, but when I saw the process I changed my mind. It will lift Rosebud West and give the town an individual character and personalty.”
The Office of Geographic Names last week wrote to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to confirm its support for the name change in light of the number of objections.
The council replied that it still supported the change, and the office then approved the request.
The call to change the name was first raised a year ago, shortly after Rosebud West was named in a Dropping off the Edge report as one of the state’s most disadvantaged postcodes.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council will vote on whether to rename Rosebud West ‘Capel Sound’
The lobby group said a new name would instil pride in the area and help shed the stigma attached to the suburb.
Campaigner Terry Wright said the name change was about trying to help people feel good about where they lived.
Mr Wright said many people were familiar with the proposed moniker, first used in an 1836 survey chart, through The Capel Sound Shopping Village and The Capel Sound Foreshore.