The mooted bike path has enjoyed widespread support – attracting more than $50,000 during a three-week fundraising campaign –  but farmers whose properties are affected have concerns for their livestock and pasture. 

Funds raised will finance an urban planner to come to Wagga next month to begin work on a detailed trail concept plan and costing.

The proposed 21-kilometre sealed track stretches from the Visitor Information Centre in Tarcutta Street, along the levee bank, over the Sturt Highway and along the railway line to Ladysmith.

Farmers worry weeds kept down by grazing livestock will grow unabated once the cycle track is fenced off, but backers of the rail trail have provided photographs of existing head-high weeds at six points along the route.

Wagga Rail Trail committee chair Lisa Glastonbury said the railway line has gone unchecked for the last 29 years, since the trains stopped running.

“It’s a neglected corridor that's been a public asset for more than 100 years,” she said.

“Since the trains stopped in 1974 the government has neglected the rail corridor and it’s a mess.

“Here is an opportunity to transform this neglected resource into a top notch passive recreation and tourism resource for the continuing benefit of the community.”

Farmer and former Wagga councillor Alan Brown – an ardent critic of the route bisecting productive farmland – said bio-security fears were well founded.

“If you've got sections that are laden with problem weeds, it's relatively simple to spread them to where they’re not present via tyres and shoes,” Mr Brown said.

“Biosecurity is far more than just weeds, another open corridor is an opportunity to transfer diseases.

“It would mean more costly maintenance for farmers to stay in control of the bio-security threat.”