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Moreland

(3058, 7 km N, Moreland City)

Moreland lies north of Moreland Road, between the Merri and Moonee Ponds creeks. Magistrate Farquhar McCrae purchased the western half in 1839, naming it after his grandfather's Jamaican estate. In 1882 Montague Dare imagined Moreland East as the Toorak of the North. The Grove, dotted with four-bedroomed houses, and complete with tennis court, pavilion, bowling green and caretaker, epitomised his genteel vision. Two polychrome-brick towered mansions still dominate the street. A covenant banning shops, hotels or low-value housing guarded Dare's vision. Moreland was sprinkled with more modest housing in the 1920s and covered in the 1950s.

Richard Broome