Monday morning's resignation news came like a "bolt out of the blue" for the Save Bungendore Park members, who had been attempting to get an audience with the Deputy Premier for months but to no avail.

"Was it our campaign which made him [Mr Barilaro] go? Maybe we could claim it," local resident Mark Lintermans said with a rueful smile.

The news has provided the group with renewed optimism that NSW government planning officials will be given less a politically-driven directive as to the location of the promised new high school, which Mr Barilaro had pledged for the fast-growing regional town by the end of 2023.

The group is hugely supportive of a new high school for the town but not for the Barilaro-driven location, which will sandwich the proposed $34 million pre-fabricated double storey buildings between a railway line and a severely truncated version of the much-utilised Mick Sherd Oval, which has been the town's dedicated public recreational area since 1886.

The proposed location would fill in the town's community-funded pool, take over the former Palerang council chambers, level the local community centre and remove 70 trees.

However, Queanbeyan-Palerang council chief executive officer Peter Tegart said the proposal had been the subject of extensive community consultation including surveys, pop-ups and information sessions and the development application was on exhibition now and would close in a couple of weeks.

"The NSW government's prevailing policy has always been that it doesn't want a high school on the edge of town but located in a central place where it would share facilities," Mr Tegart said.

"It has always been clear that the town would be fully compensated for any facilities that would be lost by this proposal and brand new facilities built, such as a new public library and a new eight-lane pool."

However, freedom-of-information documents obtained by the Save the Bungendore Park group revealed that the central site, at 2.9 hectares, was too small by the education department's own admission.

Such is the accelerated population growth within the historic town that even if the high school was built within the fast-tracked two-year timeframe, three years later it would exceed its proposed 450-student capacity.

"We all want the high school, we just don't want it located where Mr Barilaro decided he wanted it," the group's president Richard Gregory said.

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"Even his own education department had decided the school was better located on a larger site elsewhere."

Alternative greenfields sites have been identified to the east and to the north of the town although there were concerns that these were flood prone. The council's own future residential growth projections are predominantly to the north of the town, adjacent to one of the alternative sites.

The group claimed that Mr Barilaro has always been the key driver behind locating the new school within dedicated parkland in the town's heart and designated common.

"The town has been promised a high school, the discussion must now be the best location for it," resident Cliff Cole said.

"This common area is a really precious part of our town and its character.

"Once this recreational heart of our town is gone, it's gone for good. And the character of the town will be changed forever."

And the group says the COVID lockdown has stymied full and open community consultation, preventing physical group meetings where all views could be canvassed.

The Canberra Times approached Mr Barilaro's office several times for comment and to discuss the project but he has refused interviews.

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