NEWS DESK
Indigenous names sought for shire’s 11 new wards Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au
Play time: In the garden with the new musical play instruments are are Sonny, Stacey Wakeman (Mount Martha Bendigo Bank), Gigi, and Freddy. Picture: Yanni
Melodies in the garden THERE will be music in the air from the gardens of South Mornington Preschool from now on, after an $18,000 grant from the Bendigo Bank went towards buying a series of outdoor instruments. The instruments were incorporated into Janet’s Garden, in memory of a teacher who passed away about 10
years ago. School president Sarah McCall said the garden memorial was now a space to remember and celebrate those from the community who have passed away. “Now the students can visit the garden and enjoy playing the instruments that have to the enjoyment of the outdoor space,” she said.
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors want Indigenous names for the 11 new municipal wards being created on the peninsula by the Victorian Electoral Commission. A majority of the shire’s 11 councillors last week agreed to ask the Local Government Minister Melissa Horne to “implement” and a local government municipal panel to “consider” Boon Wurrung language place names for the wards. Councillors at the Tuesday 31 October public meeting agreed to “seek advice” about Boon Wurrung ward names from the Bunurong Land Council. The Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation is locked in a legal dispute with the Boon Wurrung Land and Sea Council over a native title claim to more than 13,000 square kilometres of territory. The ward boundary and name changes are part of a VEC review that will see 11 single councillor wards replace the existing two three-councillor, one two-councillor and three single-councillor wards. The VEC has proposed three “models” for the ward changes and lists possible ward names as Briars,
Moorooduc, Mount Eliza, Nepean, Red Hill, Rosebud, Safety Beach, Seawinds, Tanti Creek, Warringine, Watson Creek, Capel Sound, McCrae, Somerville, Balcombe and Truemans. Horne will be told that council wants Boon Wurrung language place names “as this council considers that recognition of Indigenous culture is an important part of our history as recognised in our local state sponsored reconciliation action plan”. Cr Despi O’Connor said Boon Wurrung was “actually the language and the Bunurong Land Council appreciate that as well and is something they talk about”. Asking the Bunurong “to lead” in suggesting ward names would build the shire’s relationship with the land council. O’Connor said the land council would not make up words if there was not one appropriate for a ward. “There may not be a name they think is especially necessary and I don’t think we should just put a different name, a Bunurong name, if it’s not from the heart and real.” Cr David Gill, who suggested inviting the Bunurong Land Council to help name the new wards, said the shire now had a cross section of Aboriginal names for its wards and Kangerong was “quite an obvious area name for Dromana”.
Choosing Aboriginal names for wards would “send a signal to our land council, and they have their difficulties … that we seriously understand issues and want to do something”. The Bunurong Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation), now being run by a special administrator, has received $200,000 from the shire over the past two years plus an unknown amount for conducting archaeological field assessments as part of a cultural heritage management plan (CHMP) process (“Administrator to ‘fix’ land council woes” The News 30/10/23). Gill said work done by shire CEO John Baker showed “that there is some, not an understanding I suppose, but some leaning towards what we are suggesting or what I am putting up for us to consider - to have First Nations names, place names [for our wards]”. He said it was the names of wards, not places like Red Hill, Rosebud, Sorrento, Shoreham, Mornington, Hastings, Mount Martha, Dromana, Flinders and Mount Eliza, which were going to change. “What we’re considering here is not tossing everything out, what we’re considering here is ward names, not the other names of where we live on the peninsula,” Gill said. Continued Page 10
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