Former Brunswick mayor says council name caused ‘considerable disquiet’ in 1994

Moreland City Council in the city’s inner-north will move to change the name of its municipality after discovering it was named after a Jamaican sugar plantation that used slave labour.

The name comes from early settler Farquhar McCrae, who bought an estate in the area in 1839 and named it Moreland after his family’s Jamaican estate.

The council received its name in 1994, when the Kennett government amalgamated the local government areas of Brunswick, Coburg and part of Broadmeadows.

Elizbeth Jackson was mayor of Brunswick City Council at the time, and is also chair of the Brunswick Community History Group.

She says the link to slave labour was well known when the council was named.

“In 1994 when the name of the municipality was announced there was considerable disquiet in the community,” she told Ross and Russel.

“There was a lot of lobbying to choose a different name. There wasn’t really a strong agreement on what that name should be.”

Ms Jackson says the name Moreland was chosen because most of the area was made up of the former cities of Brunswick and Coburg, and Moreland Road is the border between the two areas.

“It made sense that way,” she said.

Press PLAY below to hear more about how the council got its controversial name

Inner-city council vows to change name after discovering slave labour link