Moreland City (Australia)

The City of Moreland is a local government area in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It comprises the inner northern suburbs between 4 and 10 kilometres from the Melbourne city centre.

It was created in 1994 during the forced amalgamations of local governments by the Kennett 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 at the 2011 Census, the City had a population of 147,241.

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 in October 2012.

The City of Moreland covers the suburbs of Brunswick, Brunswick East, Brunswick West, Coburg, Coburg North, Fawkner, Glenroy, Gowanbrae, Hadfield, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale, and Pascoe Vale South. Small sections of the suburbs of Fitzroy North and Tullamarine are also part of the City of Moreland.

Council services

Moreland Council runs the Counihan Galley 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.

Languages

Moreland has a large percentage of residents who speak a language other than English at home (39.4% compared to 29.1% for Greater Melbourne), and a small percentage of residents who speak English only at home (55.2% compared to 66.3% for Greater Melbourne).

The top 10 languages spoken at home in Moreland (other than English) are Italian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Mandarin, Urdu, Nepali, Vietnamese, Punjabi and Hindi.

Religion

A larger proportion of Moreland residents professed a religious affiliation (69.2%) than the Greater Melbourne area (68.4%), and a smaller percentage that stated they had no religion (22.8% in Moreland, compared to 23.5% for Greater Melbourne).

The main religions represented by Moreland residents are Catholicism (32.5%), Islam (9.3%), Orthodox (7.0%), Anglican (5.4%), Hinduism (2.4%), and Buddhism (2%). Moreland has significantly larger percentages of residents who nominated Catholicism (32.5%), Islam (7.9%) and Orthodox (9%), compared to the MSD (27.3%, 3.6% and 4.0% respectively).