It comes after the inner Sydney council saw its case against merging sensationally thrown out of court in mere minutes earlier this month.   

The decision now casts doubt on the fate of other sacked councils fighting forced amalgamations in the legal system, which includes Gundagai. 

Shortly before forced mergers were formally announced, Mr McAlister and his then-councillors lodged a legal injunction to stop the amalgamation.

They are expecting their matter to be considered in the next week or two, the former mayor said. 

While Mr McAlister said Woollahra’s result was upsetting, he is still optimistic the decision will be different for Gundagai.

“Our case is different in many ways to Woollahra’s,” he said.

“There was at one stage we had two mergers going - we had one with Coota, and we had one with Coota and Harden with the delegate.

“That put a lot of pressure on council itself and the communities. If they were going to do that they should have let one go over the line, and sorted one out first.”

Anti-amalgamations campaigner and Gundagai businessman John Night said Woollahra fighting the first court’s decision could set a precedent in Gundagai’s favour. 

“Woollahra is appealing, and from our perspective it’s really good that well-resourced councils are taking this fight up,” he said.

The former member of the Nationals state executive said there was still plenty of opposition in Gundagai to merging.

Mr Knight and other like-minded residents would seek to have Member for Cootamundra Katrina Hodgkinson voted out at the next state election so the Nationals would “never forget what they did”.

“I read something the other day where the state government was saying people had moved on and accepted it, but it couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said. 

“The resentment is there and it is going to be there for a very long time.”