Merri-bek City Council
Local government area
Location within Melbourne metropolitan area
Coordinates:37°44′S144°57′E / 37.733°S 144.950°E /-37.733; 144.950
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Region	Greater Melbourne
Established	1994
Council seat	Coburg
Government
• Mayor	Helen Davidson (Your Local Independents)
• State electorates	Broadmeadows Brunswick Melbourne Niddrie Pascoe Vale
• Federal divisions	Cooper Maribyrnong Wills
Area [1]
• Total	51 km2 (20 sq mi)
Population
• Total	181,725 (2018)[1] (33rd)
• Density	3,560/km2 (9,230/sq mi)
Website	Merri-bek City Council
LGAs around Merri-bek City Council Hume,Brimbank Hume Whittlesea Moonee Valley Merri-bek City Council Darebin Moonee Valley Melbourne Yarra

TheCity of Merri-bek (/ˈmɛriːbɛk/^[2]), formerly theCity of Moreland, is alocal government area in metropolitanMelbourne, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 11 kilometres from theMelbourne CBD. The Merri-bek local government area covers 51 km² (20 sq mi), and in June 2018, it had a population of 181,725.^[1]

The local government area was created as the City of Moreland in 1994 during the amalgamations of local governments by thestate government, being created from the former local government areas of theCity of Brunswick, theCity of Coburg and the southern part of theCity of Broadmeadows. It was renamed to Merri-bek in September 2022.^[3]

In 2004 theVictorian 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 fromInstant runoff voting toproportional representation viaSingle transferable vote. Elections are held every four years.

In November 2021, it came to the council's attention that Moreland's namesake was indirectly associated with a Jamaican plantation site that had traded slaves up to the 1800s.^[4][5] This historical information was contained in the 2010 Moreland Council publicationThematic History,^[6] and published in books and articles as far back as 1944.^[7]

In October 1839, Scottish surgeon and settler Dr Farquhar McCrae was sold land between Moonee Ponds Creek and Sydney Road by theCrown in the area's first colonial sale. McCrae gave the land the name Moreland. Some suggest he may have taken this name from a Jamaican sugar plantation that his paternal grandfather Alexander McCrae worked at^[8] from the late 1760s to the early 1790s, which was involved inslave trading,^[7] and kept up to 500 to 700 enslaved people in the operation in any one year.^[9] Greens Mayor Mark Riley said "The history behind the naming of this area is painful, uncomfortable and very wrong. It needs to be addressed".^[10][11] In May 2022 a choice of three proposed names from theWoi-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.^[12]

The community consultation for the renaming commenced in May 2022 and ended June 2022. Some residents expressed dissatisfaction with the process resulting in a petition to council.^[13]

On 3 July 2022 (coinciding with the start ofNAIDOC Week) the Council voted at a Special Council Meeting to officially endorse Merri-bek as the preferred name.^[14] The name was submitted to theMinister for Local Government for consideration and the Minister's decision to alter the name was gazetted on 13 September 2022 and came into operation on 26 September.^[3]

Merri-bek Council runs the Counihan Gallery at theBrunswick Town Hall, a free public art gallery named after the local artist,Noel Counihan. Other art events supported by Council include theMoreArt 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 theSydney Road Street Party.

One of the highlights of Merri-bek is its public library. Merri-bek City Libraries has five branches.

Other Merri-bek local government services include maternal and child health service, waste and recycling collection, parks and open space, a youth space called Oxygen, services for children, and aged services.

A January 2020ClimateWorks 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."^[15]

The City of Merri-bek is a member ofICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, theGlobal Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy,^[16] theCities Power Partnership,^[17] Climate Emergency Australia (CEA),Climate Active, The Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action (NAGA), and has declared pledges in the TAKE2 scheme with Sustainability Victoria.^[18]

Council declared a climate emergency on 12 September 2018.^[19]

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.^[20]

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.^[21]

In 2014, City of Moreland joined with theCity of Melbourne and several other institutions and established the Melbourne Renewable Energy Project (MREP).^[22] 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.^[23]

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%).^[24]

The City of Merri-bek 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.^[25]

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,^[26] and endorsed theFossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, the first government jurisdiction in Australia to do so.^[27][28]

Merri-bek City Council
Leadership
Mayor	Natalie Abboud, Independent[29]
Deputy Mayor	Dr Jay Iwasaki, Greens[29]
Structure
Council political groups	Greens: 4 seats   Labor: 3 seats   Your Local Independents: 2 seats   Socialist Alliance: 1 seat   Independent: 1 seat

Councillors are elected from eleven single-member wards. The council's most recent election took place inOctober 2024. Since then, Merri-bek has consisted of the following councillors:

The current mayor for 2025-2026 is Cr Natalie Abboud, while the current deputy mayor for 2025-2026 is Cr Dr Jay Iwasaki.^[30]

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2024 Victorian local elections in Northern Melbourne § Merri-bek results.[edit]

2024 Victorian local elections: Merri-bek^{[37][38][39][40]}

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor		23,108	24.48	+4.18	3
	Your Local Independents		21,930	23.23	+1.89[a]	2	1[a]
	Greens		21,069	22.32	+6.40	4
	Victorian Socialists		11,068	11.72	+7.77	0
	Independents		8,965	9.50	−35.10	1	1
	Socialist Alliance		6,266	6.63	+1.71	1
	Independent Liberal		1,621	1.71	+1.71	0
	Fusion		351	0.37	+0.37	0
Formal votes			94,378	97.11
Informal votes			2,810	2.89
Total			97,188	100.00
Registered voters / turnout			123,327	78.81

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2020 Victorian local elections in Northern Melbourne § Moreland.[edit]

2020 Victorian local elections: Moreland^[42]

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Independent		41,866	44.60	+4.16	3	1
	Labor		20,901	20.30	−8.30	3	1
	Greens		16,396	15.92	−13.92	4
	Sue Bolton Moreland Team		5,062	4.92	+0.21	1
	Reason		4,637	4.50	+4.50	0
	Victorian Socialists		4,068	3.95	+3.95	0
	Animal Justice		935	0.91	+0.91	0

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2016 Victorian local elections § Moreland.[edit]

2016 Victorian local elections: Moreland^[43]

Party			Votes	%	Seats	Change
	Independent		25,164	36.49	4	2
	Greens		20,582	29.84	4	3
	Labor		19,728	28.60	2	1
	Socialist Alliance		3,249	4.71	1
Formal votes			39,365	100.0

2002 Victorian local elections: Moreland^[44]

Party			Votes	%	Seats	Change
	Labor		18,237	46.33	7	3
	Independent		11,271	28.64	2	4
	Greens		9,134	23.21	1	1
	Socialist Alliance		714	1.82	0
Total formal votes			39,365	100.0

At the 2021 census, the city had a population of 171,357 up from 162,558 at the 2016 census.^[45]

^ -Territory divided with anotherLGA

• Xianyang, Shaanxi, China
• Solarino, Italy
• Canterbury, New South Wales, Australia
• Aileu, East Timor
• Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
• Sparta, Greece
• Çorum, Turkey

• List of Melbourne suburbs

• Media related toCity of Merri-bek at Wikimedia Commons
• Official Merri-bek City Council website
• Moreland Online Community Directory
• List of Moreland's Friendship cities
• Moreland Community Profile: census information and demographics
• Metlink local public transport map
• Link to Land Victoria interactive mapsArchived 24 March 2022 at theWayback Machine
• Merri-bek City Libraries website
• Interactive map of Victorian local government areas (pre-1994 vs present) -Victorian Government - Digital Twin Victoria

• Populated places established in 1994
• 1994 establishments in Australia
• Local government areas in Melbourne
• City of Merri-bek

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