Moreland

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.

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, 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 preferential voting to proportional representation. Elections are held every four years, with the last elections held on Saturday 22 October 2016.

On 24 March 2021, it was discovered that Moreland's namesake was that of a Jamaican slave estate (the information was already widely known following the 2010 Moreland Council publication Thematic History.[2]

Farquhar McCrae, who acquired land between Moonee Ponds Creek to Sydney Road in 1839 (like most Australian land investments at the time, using cash freed up by the 1833 abolition of slavery in the Empire[citation needed ]), founded the City of Moreland. The name, Moreland, was chosen after a Jamaican slave plantation McCrae's father and grandfather had operated from 1770 to 1796, which produced sugar, rum and was involved in slave trading, with numbers ranging from 500-700 enslaved people in a year.[3] Councillor Mark Riley, who is the current mayor, said "The history behind the naming of this area is painful, uncomfortable and very wrong. It needs to be addressed" and "Moreland stands firmly against racism, we are one community, proudly diverse. Council is committed to working with Wurundjeri people and we take the request very seriously." in response to the discovery.[4][5]

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.

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."[6]

City of Moreland is a member of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy,[7] the Cities Power Partnership,[8] Climate Emergency Australia (CEA), Climate Active, The Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA), and has declared pledges in the TAKE2 scheme with Sustainability Victoria.[9]

Council declared a climate emergency on 12 September 2018.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

In 2014 City of Moreland joined with the City of Melbourne and several other institutions and established the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project (MREP).[13] 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.[14]

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%).[15]

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. [16]

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.

During 2021 City of Moreland supported a climate disaster levy on coal exports,[17] and endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, the first government jurisdiction in Australia to do so.[18][19]

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:[20][21]

In order of election by ward, is:

The current Mayor is Lambros Tapinos and the Deputy Mayor is Oscar Yildiz. They were elected by council in October 2019 and will serve the 2020 year.[39]

Coordinates: 37°44′S 144°57′E  /  37.733°S 144.950°E  / -37.733; 144.950