Please sign the petition and tell our State Government that we do not want the proposed sand mine at Lerderderg Gorge Road, on the way to the iconic and popular MacKenzies Flat Picnic Area or "The Gorge". We live in a beautiful country environment which will be destroyed if the mine is allowed to proceed. As local community members, visitors to the community and residents of the area, we request that you not allow this mine to proceed. Read on for more information.

The mine is proposed by Zhong Yin Group Australia Mining Pty Ltd.

Currently the company has applied for a Work Authority to the Earth Resources Regulator, Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR).

If the company is successful in obtaining permission to operate the mine, it proposes, as announced by it’s Project Manager at a public meeting on 18 September, 2018, and in information he provided at the meeting, operation of the mine will –

• Operate for at least 30 years,
• Operate 6 days per week, from about 6 a.m to 6 p.m
• Involve 106 truck movements per day along Lerderderg Gorge Rd, exiting at 222 Lerderderg Gorge Rd
• Extract 1590 tons of crushed rock per day,
• Operate a Primary Granite rock crusher on site
• Cover an area of 18 hectares
• Be dug to a depth of 120 metres
• Operate next to residential, and agricultural properties adjacent to it, at its propsed location of 48 Camerons Rd, Darley
• Operate in an area which is otherwise zoned residential/agricultural
• Operate within 500m of existing houses
• Involve rock blasting

As members of the local community, residents and visitors, we OBJECT in the strongest possible terms to the this proposed mine opening on our back doorstep. The mine, if it opened would have a devastating and detrimental effect on the local area, including the following likely and potential effects –

• Create a massive amount of truck traffic along Lerderderg Gorge Rd, which is a narrow and winding road, Gisborne Rd, and Grant St, affecting tourists visiting the Lerderderg Gorge State park, and creating a road hazard and danger for cyclists, runners, and school children who use the road on a daily basis (children stand at points along the road to catch school buses in the morning, and are dropped off in the afternoon)
•  Destroy the local roads, creating a increased cost to the community, the local ratepayers and taxpayers
• Pollute the adjacent Goodmans Creek
• Destroy local native vegetation and wildlife
• Create a large amount of dust pollution, which will blow onto surrounding properties
• Create noise pollution for local residents, both by the trucks and rock crushing operations
• Devalue local properties
• Disrupt the local environment