City of Moreland

Last updated

City of Moreland
Victoria
MelbLGA-Moreland.gif
Location within Melbourne metropolitan area
Population181,725 (2018) [1]  (33rd)
 • Density3,560/km2 (9,230/sq mi)
Established1994
Area51 km2 (19.7 sq mi) [1]
MayorMark Riley (Greens)
Council seat Coburg
Region Metropolitan Melbourne
State electorate(s)
Federal division(s)
MorelandCouncilLogo.svg
Website City of Moreland
LGAs around City of Moreland:
Hume, Brimbank Hume Whittlesea
Moonee Valley City of Moreland Darebin
Moonee Valley Melbourne Yarra

The City of Moreland is a local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.

Contents

It was created in 1994 during the amalgamations of local governments by the state government, being created from the former local government areas of the City of Brunswick, the City of Coburg and the southern part of the City of Broadmeadows. The Moreland local government area covers 51 km2 (20 sq mi), and in June 2018, it had a population of 181,725. [1]

In 2004 the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), an independent authority created under Victorian state legislation, conducted a representation review of the Council's electoral structure, resulting in a recommendation that the 10 single councillor wards be replaced by three multi-councillor wards. A consequence of the change from single-councillor to multi-councillor wards was a change in election method from Instant runoff voting to proportional representation via Single transferable vote. Elections are held every four years.[ citation needed ]

Name

In November 2021, it came to the council's attention that Moreland's namesake was indirectly associated to a Jamaican plantation site that had traded slaves up to the 1800s by a political group named Nomoreland.net.

The group consisted of a former Greens and a previous state member, a previous Uniting Church President and two Elders from the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation [2]

The historical information was contained in the 2010 Moreland Council publication Thematic History, [3] and published in books and articles as far back as 1944. [4]

In October 1839, Scottish surgeon and settler Dr Farquhar McCrae was sold land between Moonee Ponds Creek and Sydney Road by the Crown in the area's first colonial sale. McCrae gave the land the name Moreland, some suggest he may have named this after a Jamaican sugar plantation that McCrae's paternal grandfather Alexander McCrae worked at [5] from the late 1760s to the early 1790s, which was involved in slave trading, [4] and kept up to 500 to 700 enslaved people in the operation in any one year. [6] Greens Mayor Mark Riley said "The history behind the naming of this area is painful, uncomfortable and very wrong. It needs to be addressed". [7] [8] In May 2022 a choice of three proposed names said to be derived from the Woi-wurrung language was announced by Riley and Uncle Andrew Gardiner, deputy chair of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation: Wa-dam-buk, meaning “renew”; Merri-bek, meaning “rocky country”; and Jerrang, meaning “leaf of tree”. The names were scheduled to be decided by July 2022 following community consultation. [9]

The community consultation for the renaming commenced in May 2022 and ended June 2022. Many residents expressed dissatisfaction with the process resulting in a petition to council. [10]

On 3 July 2022 (coinciding with the start of NAIDOC Week) the Council voted at a Special Council Meeting to officially endorse Merri-bek as the preferred name. [11] The name will then be submitted to the Minister for Local Government for consideration and the Minister’s decision will come into operation once formally accepted by the Governor in Council. [11]

The names have received some concerns from Wurundjeri Elders including Ian Hunter. He expressed that the name is not the correct translation. The closest term would be ‘biik’ which means country or land. The term ‘Merri’ doesn’t exist in Woi-wurrung language. [12]

Council services

Moreland Council runs the Counihan Gallery at the Brunswick Town Hall, a free public art gallery named after the local artist, Noel Counihan. Other art events supported by Council include the MoreArt event, an art in public spaces show located along the Upfield transport corridor. The Council also sponsors various street festivals around the municipality, the best known being the Sydney Road Street Party.

One of the highlights of the Moreland City Council is the public library. Moreland City Libraries have five branches.

Other services provided by Moreland Council include maternal and child health service, waste and recycling collection, parks and open space, youth space called Oxygen, services for children, and aged services.

Climate Action

Moreland Council has been one of the leading municipal councils in Australia in adopting policies on climate action and sustainability. A January 2020 Climateworks Australia local government report identified City of Moreland as one of 3 out of 57 municipal jurisdictions in Australia to have a "fully aligned net zero by 2050 target that addresses both operational and community emissions." [13]

City of Moreland is a member of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, [14] the Cities Power Partnership, [15] Climate Emergency Australia (CEA), Climate Active, The Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA), and has declared pledges in the TAKE2 scheme with Sustainability Victoria. [16]

Council declared a climate emergency on 12 September 2018. [17]

Council Operational Emissions reduction

For operational emissions, Moreland Council was certified as a ‘carbon neutral’ council in 2012. This required purchase of carbon offset credits. Moreland was the second council in Victoria, and the third in Australia, to receive this certification. A target of 30% less emissions than 2011, with a stretch goal of 40% by 2020, was over-achieved with an emissions cut of 69% by 2020, which will reduce the carbon offsets required to be purchased. [18]

Moreland City Council installed Victoria's first EV fast charge station in 2013. This has now grown to a network of 16 public EV charging stations around the municipality which are powered by 100% zero emissions renewable energy from the Crowlands Wind Farm, near Ararat. [19]

In 2014 City of Moreland joined with the City of Melbourne and several other institutions and established the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project (MREP). [20] This project developed and funded the construction of a purpose-built 39 turbine, 80 MW Crowlands windfarm, which started supplying 100% renewables power to Council facilities and buildings in 2019. [21]

Net zero by 2040 Community emissions target

Moreland's community wide municipal emissions in 2019 were 1,609,000 tonnes CO2e, composed of sectoral emissions of: Waste (3%), Transport (17%), Gas (21%), Electricity (59%). [22]

The City of Moreland has set a community emissions reduction target of net zero emissions by 2040 and established the Moreland Zero Carbon 2040 Framework Strategy and the first 5 year action plan to achieve that target. [23]

Other key climate and sustainability policies and strategies driving climate action include: Climate Emergency Action Plan (2020 to 2025), Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy, Waste and Litter Strategy, Achieving zero Carbon in the Planning Scheme, Sustainable Buildings Policy, Urban Heat Island Effect Action Plan, Urban Forest Strategy, Watermap, Procurement policy, Cooling the Upfield Corridor Action Plan, Food Systems Strategy, Fossil Fuel Divestment Strategy, Moreland Nature Plan.

Climate action endorsements

During 2021 City of Moreland supported a climate disaster levy on coal exports, [24] and endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, the first government jurisdiction in Australia to do so. [25] [26]

Suburbs

Suburbs of City of Moreland Moreland suburbs.svg
Suburbs of City of Moreland

Council

Current composition

Moreland City Council
Leadership
Mayor
Mark Riley
Deputy Mayor
Lambros Tapinos
Structure
Moreland City Council composition.svg
Council political groups
  Greens (4)
  Independent (3)
  Labor (2)
  Socialist Alliance (2)

Councillors are elected from three multi-member wards, two electing four members, and one electing three, for a total of eleven councillors. The current council was elected in October 2016, and its composition is: [27] [28]

PartyCouncillors
  Greens 4
 Independent2
  Labor 2
  Socialist Alliance 2
 Victorians1
Total11

In order of election by ward, is:

WardPartyCouncillorNotes
North-East  Labor Annalivia Carli Hannan
  Greens Adam Pulford
  Socialist Alliance Sue Bolton
  Independent Helen Pavlidis-Mihalakos
North-West [lower-alpha 1]  VictoriansOscar Yildiz
  Independent Helen Davidson
  Greens Angelica Panopoulos
  Socialist Alliance Monica Harte [29]
South  Labor Lambros Tapinos
  Greens Mark Riley
  Greens James Conlan

Council election results

Single-member wards, 1996–2004
Ward1996–1999 [30] 1999–2002 [31] 2002–2004 [32]
199920002001
Box ForestTony AbelaKen Blair (Re-elected in 2002)
GlencairnChris IliopoulosRobert Larocca (Re-elected in 2002)
GrandviewRosemary Kerr (Re-elected in 1999)Stephen Roach
HoffmanMike HillAndy Ingham (Vacated seat in 2001)Joe Caputo (By-election in 2001, re-elected in 2002)
Lincoln MillsRod Higgins (Re-elected in 1999, vacated seat in 2000)Vicki Yianoulatos (By-election in 2000, re-elected in 2004)
Lygon Glenyys Romanes Leigh SnellingFraser Brindley
MerriAnthony Helou (Re-elected in 1999 and 2002)
MoonahAndrew Rowe (Re-elected in 1999)Mark Higginbotham
NewlandsStella Kariofyllidis (Re-elected in 1999 and 2002)
WestbreenGeoff LutzMelanie RaymondJoe Ficarra
Multi-member wards, 2004–present
Ward2004–2008 [33] 2008–2012 [34] 2012–2016 [35] 2016–2020 [27] [28] 2020–2024 [36]
North-East Ward  Labor Anthony Helou [37] (Re-elected in 2008)  Socialist Alliance Sue Bolton [38] (Re-elected in 2016 and 2020)
Daniel De Lorenzis  Labor Stella Kariofyllidis [39]   Ind. Liberal Rob Thompson [38]   Independent Ali Irfanli  Independent Helen Pavlidis-Mihalakos
  Labor Mark O'Brien [40]   Labor Michael Teti [38] (Re-elected in 2012)  Labor Annalivia Carli Hannan (Re-elected in 2020)
  Greens Andrea Sharam [41] [42]  GreensToby Archer* [43]  GreensLenka Thompson* [38]  GreensNatalie Abboud GreensAdam Pulford
North-West Ward LaborMark Higginbotham [44]  LaborOscar Yildiz [38] (Re-elected in 2012 as a Labor councilor)(Re-elected in 2016 and 2020 as an Independent, no longer a Labor councilor)
  Independent John Kavanagh [38] (Re-elected in 2008, 2012 and 2016) LaborMilad El-Halabi
 LaborKathleen Matthews-Ward [39] (Re-elected in 2008)  Independent Helen Davidson [38] (Re-elected in 2016 and 2020)
Michael El-Halabi LaborEnver Erdogan [39]  LaborLita Gillies [38]  GreensDale Martin GreensAngelica Panopoulos
South Ward LaborJoe Caputo [45]  LaborLambros Tapinos [38] [39] (Re-elected in 2012, 2016 and 2020)
 LaborAlice Pryor [39] (Re-elected in 2008) LaborMeghan Hopper [38]  GreensMark Riley (Re-elected in 2020)
 GreensJosephine Connellan [41] [42] (Re-elected in 2008) GreensSamantha Ratnam [38] (Re-elected in 2016, resigned 2017) GreensJames Conlan
* Toby Archer resigned his seat in 2011 citing family reasons, it was subsequently won by Lenka Thompson in 2012 in a countback. [43] [46]

Mayors

The current Mayor is Mark Riley and the Deputy Mayor is Lambros Tapinos. They were elected by council in November 2021 and will serve the 2022 year. [47]

Sister cities

See also

Notes

  1. Pending an investigation by Victoria Police and a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, following allegations of voter fraud.

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References

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Coordinates: 37°44′S144°57′E / 37.733°S 144.950°E / -37.733; 144.950