The Mining Free Communities initiative started in the Northern Rivers region of NSW with the birth of the 'Gasfields Free Commmunities' strategy.

It is a unique community democracy process that enables local people to survey their communities in a systematic way and, if a majority is obtained, to declare their communities 'Mining Free'. It is everyday people uniting together, road by road and valley by valley, to protect the places they love where governments refuse to do so. 

It is a powerful political action, that involves erecting 'Mining Free Road' signs along local roads, celebrating the results with colour and style, handing declarations to decision makers and preparing to move forward together to defend the country.

It is an important first step to informing your local community about what is at stake, providing pathways for more people to join in the movement, and going on to start a local action cell.  It is the main building block of a strong community campaign.

The strategy involves a simple approach that any group can undertake. To make it easy for you to apply the strategy in your area, we have developed a simple 'How To' Guide for Mining Free Communities. You can download the Guide here.

Before you start the strategy, we strongly encourage you to contact your regional Lock the Gate Coordinator to support you in the process.  All of the other resources that you need to implement the strategy will be available on this site soon. 

 A Gasfield Free Northern Rivers community.