Warren Aubin says acoustic report supports new go-kart track site

The new site was suggested in June, 2021, little more than a month after then Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley handed down a declaration preventing a go-kart track being built on land at the back of McPhillamy Park.

Bathurst Regional Council agreed to pursue the new site, but there were questions over whether the site would be suitable, particularly in relation to noise.

An acoustic study had to be conducted, and now the results are back.

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Councillor Warren Aubin said the findings have been presented to council and the consultants gave the thumbs up for the site.

"They were quite happy to give it the thumbs up, which is great, so we'll just go from there," he said.

"It's sounding very favourable at this stage."

The site adjacent to Conrod Straight had previously been considered, but was rejected due to noise.

However, that was many years ago, and when McPhillamy Park fell through, it was Cr Aubin who pushed for council to give it another chance.

He said he never doubted it would fall within the acceptable noise limit this time around.

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"You only had to go to the Orange kart track," he said.

"The trots used to run right next door and at one particular corner down the bottom of the Orange circuit, it was not even 20 metres away from one of the bends on the horse track, and they used to run at the same time.

"Race horses, being quite flighty, you would think wouldn't really take too well to a lot of noise going near them while they were racing, but it didn't worry them one iota.

"... I always had a fair bit of optimism that this area [in Bathurst] would be fine."

Should things continue to progress positively, Cr Aubin said the track could be built quite quickly, although the costs still need to be determined.

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