To the residents of Mount Clear, Canadian, Sebastopol, surrounding Ballarat communities and beyond.

Your financial support is urgently needed to help safeguard the health and wellbeing of residents living in close proximity to Ballarat Gold Mine, located in Mount Clear, where the construction and ongoing operation of a fourth tailings storage facility (dam) could potentially pose an environmental health risk from toxic dust.

Gold ore processing wastes - tailings - are stored in tailings dams, and contain arsenic, a carcinogen, and other contaminants. The City of Ballarat Council has conditionally approved the construction of this tailings dam (TSF4) without referral for an Environment Effects Statement (EES): an EES is vital to a thorough investigation of best practice tailings management and potential environmental health impacts using local site-specific dust monitoring data. And TSF4 would be much closer to housing than the 250 metre protective buffer zone recommended by EPA Victoria!

As a group of local residents who are extremely concerned for our environment and the potential risks and hazards associated with the construction and long term operation of a 39 hectare toxic tailings dam, bigger than 20 AFL football fields and up to 35 metres high, in such close proximity to our homes, schools, child care and aged care facilities, the Tailings Dam Community Safety Action Group Inc. (TDCSAG) has lodged a Joint Applicant appeal with VCAT to oppose this industrial development.

The cost of such a case at VCAT may not be disclosed to TDCSAG until a week prior to the Hearing commencement on 12 March 2024, but we need to be prepared for a complex case lasting 7 days, with a total cost of $18,776.10, and as a group of only 8 individuals this cost is prohibitive. Thank you to everyone who donated in August last year, when we raised $565. This is still going towards our VCAT appeal, but we need much more.

We want to continue the fight but we won’t succeed without financial help from the community we are fighting for.

We believe in the power of community support, and your donation, no matter how small, will make a huge difference in our VCAT dispute. So please join us in our endeavour to help keep our Community safe.

Please note: Any donation will be refunded if, for any reason, the VCAT Hearing does not proceed, or if we exceed - or do NOT reach - our target of $18,776.10 in time.

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