A group of Beveridge residents is pushing for the third time to have a small north-eastern pocket of the suburb renamed.
Five residents are behind the latest bid to have a part of Beveridge renamed Wurunbik, meaning “manna gum country”, according to local Wurundjeri elder Ian Hunter.
The group cites issues with emergency services whose personnel often drive straight to central Beveridge about 12 kilometres away in the Mitchell shire.
The Wurunbik Working Group presented its proposal to Whittlesea council at last week’s meeting when an alternative resolution was passed with 12 recommendations.
The group claims that for the past decade residents have been living in a geographical black hole because emergency services don’t recognise all of the area currently designated as Beveridge.
In 2001, 103 residents petitioned Whittlesea council to rename their area Merriang, its original name before the previous local council was sacked. But Australia Post and the Victoria State Emergency Service objected due to the existence of another Merriang in New South Wales. A smaller group picked up the fight again in 2009 but failed to get traction. The group’s chairwoman, Gwynedd Hunter-Payne, said the Black Saturday bushfires and the recent Mickleham bushfire reaffirmed the dangers of remaining part of Beveridge. “In 2009, the most northerly residents could smell the pine trees burning, but because we were zoned ‘Beveridge’ they didn’t put out an alarm for us.”
The council has accepted the proposal and will begin a 28-day community consultation process beginning today.
Surveys will be sent out to all 220 properties in the affected geographic area.
