From its humble beginnings with a community survey of households and roads around the small village of The Channon, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, the "Mining Free Communities" initiative has since empowered communities right across across Australia and helped them to stand up to the threats from coal and gas development.
The initiative 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 'Gasfield Free’ or ‘Coal Free’ road signs on 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’s at stake, providing pathways for people to join the movement, and going on to start a local Action Group. It is the main building block of a strong community campaign.
