More than 100 protesters, many waving placards calling for the track to be moved, gathered in the park to take their message directly to councillors as they arrived for the monthly Bathurst Regional Council meeting.

The rally had been hastily organised following confirmation work on the new track was scheduled to start on March 8.

Friends of McPhillamy Park spokesman Iain McPherson addressed the rally, acknowledging the frustration many were feeling as their calls for council to find a new site for the track continued to fall on deaf ears.

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"We're not saying no karts anywhere, we're saying no karts in the people's park, McPhillamy Park, the park that was given to the people. That's our key message.

"I think we are also here because we're feeling a bit angry and frustrated.

"This is an issue that's been an issue for the past three-plus years. Many of us have been attending meetings, putting alternative suggestions and constantly trying to participate in a more cohesive community that comes to decisions fairly and openly and with something that we can all associate with."

Mr McPherson said thoughts of a go-kart track at the top of Mount Panorama had angered many.

"This is probably the most divisive issue that's been in Bathurst for at least a decade," he said.

"There have been other significant events but this issue of the top of the Mount and spoiling it for future generations has been very divisive and has engaged so many people.

"Over 2400 people have signed a petition, over 1000 people on a Facebook page who are regularly sharing their views - in anybody's terms that's a significant social and cultural movement.

"And undoubtedly the thing that really drives us is that the public, the community of Bathurst, is potentially losing so much and gaining so little as the process goes of alienating public land for private use."

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Mr McPherson said council's decision to borrow $2.25 million to begin work on the track, and the prospect of possibly another $2.25 million to complete the project, had also angered many residents who had originally been told the track would be funded entirely from state and federal grants.

Wednesday's rally was the first in a series of "direct action" protests being planned by the Friends of McPhillamy Park in the countdown to the start of work on the new track.

The lobby group - comprising prominent Bathurst heritage warriors, academics and environmentalists -formed in October last year to co-ordinate the efforts of locals seeking to have the go-kart track built in a different, undecided, location.