Deputy mayor ‘appalled’ by suggestion that move to honour Indigenous elder was rethought because of racist reactions from the public

Ballarat city council will not name its newest suburb after a respected Indigenous elder after more than 100 complaints led to councillors voting on Wednesday night to find a new name.



The suburb in regional Victoria was to be named Mullawallah after a Wathaurung man who was also known as William Wilson and “King Billy” by European settlers. He is believed to have been the last of the Ballaarat tribe.

But the deputy mayor, Peter Innes, said residents were concerned the name would be hard to pronounce and even more difficult to spell, prompting the council to rethink the name, which was chosen from a shortlist of 36 community suggestions. The council will now ask residents for their views on other options.

Innes said he was “appalled” by suggestions councillors had voted to scrap the name because of racist reactions from the public.

The local Aboriginal elder Ted Lovett had told the Herald Sun on Wednesday that opposition to Mullawallah was driven by racism.

“Many of the objections are just excuses, really,” he said. “People say they are not being racist by objecting to the name, but what else can you call it?”

Innes told Guardian Australia on Wednesday the suggestion was “abhorrent”. “We fully respect our Indigenous community and I’m appalled by suggestions in the media that this rethink of the name would be for racist reasons.

“All of the complaints were around the spelling and pronouncing of the name, while others said it was too similar to other suburb names already in existence.”

Innes said there was a full public gallery at the meeting Wednesday night, and that many community members spoke to say how distressed they were by the racism claims.

He added that Indigenous names were still being considered and that the council believed it was still a fitting way to recognise the traditional owners of the land .

“It’s just for a number of reasons, none of them to do with racism, Mullawallah is not suitable, but we are keen to work with the Indigenous community to think of other names to recognise the incredible Indigenous people in our community.”



The suburb will be the newest in the council’s western growth zone.