The Bathurst Wiradyuri and Aboriginal Community Elders’ outspoken media officer Ray Wilson resigned from his role on Wednesday over disputed claims published in the Western Advocate last week.

Mr Wilson maintains he was speaking on behalf of – and with the knowledge of - the local elders group when he said they wanted to see Wahluu permanently written on the side of the Mount.

But a post on the group’s Facebook page on Tuesday distanced the elders from that stance and issued an apology to mayor Gary Rush over claims [denied by Cr Rush in our article] that he had promised to support the proposal.

It’s not a good look from a group that has so much to offer our local region.

Meanwhile, council now appears to have move further from the Wahluu plan with confirmation it was seeking money in next year's budget to have Bathurst permanently etched below Mount Panorama.

That idea certainly has merit as well but would still represent a missed opportunity.

Wahluu has been gazetted as the official co-name of Mount Panorama and that should earn it equal billing on the Bathurst horizon.

Seeing Wahluu written that there would do nothing to detract from the Mount’s reputation as the home of Australian motorsport and nor could it diminish the awe and wonder that great circuit inspires.

And nor is this part of a grand plan to change the Mount’s name forever – it is simply a way of recognising that the Mount had significance long before European settlement and has a local history dating back thousands of year before the first car raced around it.

Mount Panorama could become a cornerstone of this region’s ongoing path to reconciliation, a path that carries twists and turns for every local community.

Instead, the high ideals behind those plans have been lost in the mire of more local in-fighting.

Bathurst’s Aboriginal community needs to speak with one voice on this proposal and show a united wish for the co-naming of Mount Panorama to be taken seriously.

And they must do so sooner rather than later or the opportunity will be lost – and that would be a shame for all of us.