General News
13 May, 2026
Council presses minister
Two important state-level meetings concerning Wimmera were attended by Yarriambiack Shire Council representatives on April 21, with a short report on them delivered to the council meeting the following day.
YSC chief executive Tammy Smith said the first meeting was “on behalf of the Wimmera Southern Mallee Council's Alliance” with Buloke Shire Council chief executive, Daniel McLoughlan, regarding presenting the Resource Ready Strategy and key requests “asked to department secretaries and department representatives as well from the state government”.
“We then followed up with a meeting (with) myself and mayor McLean with minister D'Ambrosio, she said.
“It was also attended by the CEO of Resources Victoria and representatives from VicGrid and it was a very positive and constructive meeting.”
Mayor Andrew McLean echoed the remarks and elaborated on the discussion.
“In our meeting with the minister yesterday, we went through five different dot points,” he said.
“The first one was the critical minerals road map and renewable energy zones, and the increased pressure on local government resourcing to cope with that.
“Second was the road discontinuation process with the Donald Mineral Sands outlining the learnings and improvements that should occur there.
“Third one was the Minyip community meeting and proposed projects – so that was put forward again, and we asked the minister to take that to the Premier and champion that cause.
“Fourth was the rehabilitation committee and the importance of establishing this committee, and we did get positive feedback.
“Finally, was the mental health (and) wellbeing of our residents. These pressures and the frictions out there ... the division between our community and the mental health problems that are faced with that.”