Bathurst go-kart track closer to approval

Bathurst Regional Council is continuing its decade-long push for a go-kart track at the world-famous Mount Panorama motor racing circuit, with the latest step towards approval now complete.

A development application was lodged in October 2023 for a 1000m go-kart track, a concrete pit area, a sound-absorbing acoustic mound on the eastern and southern sides of the track, as well as communications, drainage and parking facilities on the 20-hectare site. 

In order for the application to be approved, public feedback must be considered, with Bathurst Regional Council hosting a submission period on its ‘Your Say Bathurst’ website between 28 November and 11 December 2023. 

The feedback is yet to be made public.

It will now be considered by independent experts as part of the process, with no firm timeline or statute of limits for when the project – which saw its first application submitted in 2015, since rejected – will be approved or denied.

If approved, Bathurst Regional Council will be able to move forward with plans to build the facility on council-owned land near the base of Mount Panorama, next to Conrod Straight on the outside of the circuit.

Councillor Warren Aubin has been a long-time advocate of the go-kart circuit and put forward the latest location for the international-length layout in June 2021.

The proposed 1000-metre kart track has been mired in controversy both in terms of its estimated $4.7-million cost – of which the council has $2.2 million already – and where it will be situated. 

It comes as the council is debating a significant rate rise for its residents in 2024.

A proposal by Greyhound Racing NSW to build a greyhound track on the same land, following the flooding of its former venue in 2022, has also put the go-kart project under close scrutiny.

In November 2023, Western Advocate reported Bathurst Mayor Jess Jennings admitting one project would have to give way to the other.

“[Bathurst Regional] Council has researched the prospects of both fitting in that space and we believe there's simply not enough physical room," Jennings told the Western Advocate.

“For that site, it's an either/or, but bear in mind that that's still not the only site in Bathurst that the greyhound facility could potentially go … that’s a decision for the council to make.”

The latest proposed location was one of three options discussed by the council in August, almost two years after an original location was ruled out.

The original plan to build a go-kart circuit at McPhillamy Park on top of Mount Panorama ended in May 2021, when Federal Environmental Minister, Sussan Ley, issued an emergency Section 10 protection order under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act (ATSIHP).

This meant the site could not be developed for at least 10 years – when the order may be extended – due to its cultural significance.

Bathurst Regional Council general manager at the time, David Sherley, publicly disagreed with the order but said in a statement the council would abide by it.