Morangup Hit Again
Rates Up for Rural Residential While Toodyay Town Goes Down

Published: 27 March 2026 | MRG members

For years, Morangup households have carried the cost of living further out, driving further, paying more for fuel, spending more time on the road, and relying far less on Toodyay town than the Shire seems willing to admit. Now the Shire of Toodyay has made a decision that will only deepen that divide.

At the 5 March 2026 Ordinary Council Meeting, Council voted to abolish differential rating and move to a uniform rate in the dollar from 1 July 2026. The motion was moved by Cr S McCormick, seconded by Cr J Prater, and carried 6 to 0 by Crs M McKeown, M Dival, S McCormick, J Prater, S Van der Heyden and the Morangup local Cr - Raymond Mills.

And for Morangup, that is the story.

Because most of Morangup falls into the GRV Rural Residential category, the very category the Shire's own model increases. The same table says the change affects 1,055 GRV Rural Residential properties, making it one of the biggest groups in the Shire. Not to mention other places such as Bejoording Coondle Nunile, Julimar and Hoddy's Well, where residents may also read this as part of the same wider outer-locality fairness problem. But the main agenda here is Morangup, because Morangup families are the ones who have been carrying this outer-locality burden for years.

What the Shire says — and what it really means

The Shire's public line is that this is not about raising more money. It says the change is about simplification, transparency, fairness, and long-term compliance. Its latest public material now pushes phrases like fairer, clearer, easier to understand, and not about raising more money.

But the officer report itself says the Shire has had a "checkered past" with differential rating and that the State Administrative Tribunal quashed the Shire's rates in 2016/17 and again in 2022/23. The report also says the process is complex, bureaucratic, and something Council often does not get right each year.

It is also worth noting that the 2022/23 rates failure did not happen in a vacuum. That round was bound up with the Shire's attempt to apply a differential mining rate that the State Government would not allow, which only sharpened the sense that local ratepayers were being dragged into another avoidable rates mess created by the Shire's own handling of the system.

So let's say it plainly. This was not done because the maths is impossible. It was done because the Shire has repeatedly failed to manage differential rating properly and has now chosen to flatten the system instead.

And who wears that decision?

Rural Residential owners.
That means Morangup.

What this likely means on actual rates notices

The official table is a rate-in-the-dollar shift, not a ready-made notice amount. So the real hit depends on each property's Gross Rental Value (GRV).

But for Morangup households, a realistic rough estimate can still be made. Under the Shire's table, GRV Rural Residential moves from 11.02130 to 11.57130 — a difference of 0.55 cents in the dollar of GRV.

Extra annual rates ≈ GRV × 0.0055

Example GRV	Estimated extra annual hit
$30,000	About $165 more
$35,000	About $192.50 more
$40,000	About $220 more
$45,000	About $247.50 more
$50,000	About $275 more
$60,000	About $330 more

That is the likely first-round structural hit from the rating-method change alone. It is not the final story, but it is the first bill people should be mentally preparing for.

And for higher-value Morangup homes, many now selling around the $1.2 million mark, this is not some harmless technical adjustment. It is another material cost layered onto households already dealing with mortgage strain, insurance hikes, fuel bills, rural maintenance costs, commuting burden, and the simple fact that Morangup families often head west, not east, for work, school, shopping, sport, medical services and life generally.

And this may not be the whole hit

There is another reason Morangup residents are right to be angry. The March decision is the method change — the reshuffling of who pays more and who pays less. It does not necessarily include whatever broader increase the Shire may later apply through the 2026/27 budget.

That means the danger is a double hit:

First, Rural Residential gets pushed up relative to town Residential. Then, the Shire may add a broader annual increase on top through the next budget cycle.

So when people hear "it's only 5% in the rate in the dollar", they should not assume that is the final bottom line on the next rates notice. It may only be the first layer.

Morangup has every right to feel stitched up

This is where the Shire's fairer and clearer language starts to ring hollow.

Because Morangup is not Toodyay town.

Morangup residents do not get the same practical convenience, the same service proximity, the same easy access to town facilities, or the same walk-up relationship with the Shire centre. Many locals live more like peri-urban west-facing households than town-based residents. We work west. We shop west. We play west. Our services are often west. Our fuel bills are west. Our real daily life is west.

And yet, when the Shire has a compliance problem of its own making, the answer is to flatten the structure, reduce town Residential, and increase Rural Residential.

That is why this decision feels so unjust.

Not because Morangup expects special treatment. But because Morangup is sick of being treated as if its reality is the same as the townsite when it plainly is not.

This is not happening in a vacuum

What makes this harder to swallow is that it lands after years of rates pressure and major Shire spending burdens.

The longer trail matters. The Shire's own budget and meeting records show repeated annual rates growth over the last decade, including significant increases in several years, while the broader recreation and aquatic precinct project became a major long-term financial commitment. The recreation-ground and pool push had roots going back to land acquisition and planning in 2013/14, major capital commitment by 2018/19, loan exposure by 2020/21, and ongoing operating-cost concerns in the years after.

So Morangup residents are not reacting to one isolated tweak. They are reacting to a pattern:

rising costs, town-centric assumptions, heavy Shire spending programs, weak outer-locality voice, and now a formal decision that shifts more of the rating burden onto Rural Residential while giving town Residential a reduction.

That is cumulative. And cumulative unfairness hits harder than any one line item.

Who voted for it

The record is clear.

No one voted against it.

(Cr Madacsi, no-vote as she was absent, on leave)

So this was not some accidental drift. It was a conscious Council choice.

The language war has already begun

The Shire has now moved into message-control mode, telling residents this is fairer, clearer, easier to understand, and not about raising more money.

But when a policy raises Rural Residential, reduces town Residential, and arrives after years of rates pressure and cost strain, people are entitled to ask whether fairer just means simpler for the Shire, not fairer for the households paying the bill.

That is the real dispute here.

Bottom line for Morangup

If you live in Morangup and fall in GRV Rural Residential, the likely effect of this decision on your next rates notice is not zero.

On rough GRV examples, the structural increase alone may add somewhere around $165 to $330 a year for many properties, and potentially more for higher-GRV households, before any later general budget increase is layered on top.

That is real money. And for many local families, it lands at exactly the wrong time.

The real headline

So let's stop pretending this is just a tidy technical reform.

This is what happened:

The Shire of Toodyay solved its own differential-rating compliance problem by flattening the system. Town Residential was modelled to go down. Rural Residential was modelled to go up. Morangup is in the firing line.

That is the story.

And yes — it has been picked up now.

Editorial note: This article is Morangup-focused by design. Other places affected by the Rural Residential issue should not be ignored, but Morangup remains the main agenda and the primary lens for this coverage.