Convoy to Canberra protesters considering private land up against council approvals and soaring prices

No police or government could kick them out of a protest base if they owned it, surely?

In video footage shared on social media, a man addressed a crowd on Saturday claiming that if every protester donated $10, they would be able to "pay cash for a 300-acre property" 20 minutes outside Canberra.

That calculation may have been based on some of the wilder crowd figures bandied about (some protesters claimed hundreds of thousands to even millions had shown up in Canberra).

But even based on the more realistic estimates of 10,000 to 15,000 at their largest demonstration on Saturday, surely they had some purchasing power?

Well, no, not really. And beyond sheer market forces, council regulations would very likely stand in the way of the group's plans.

Assuming the crowd reached 15,000 and every one of them handed over a $10 note for a grand total of $150,000, their combined funds would barely scratch the surface in a nearby regional area such as Yass, according to real estate agent Andrew Curlewis of Yass Valley Property.

"You're going to be looking at over $1.5 million to $2 million [for a 300-acre block]," he said.

"You can't buy a residential block in Yass for $150,000."

Prospective land owners are also faced with ongoing land fees and maintenance bills, Mr Curlewis explained.

"To put in a septic system, that's $20,000 there. If you want to connect to mains power, you've got to put a pole and a transformer [in], well, there's probably $30,000. If you want to put in a standalone solar system there's $40,000. There's all sorts of costs," he said.

Setting up a campground on private land isn't a simple exercise in any part of regional NSW.

A spokesperson for Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council said under the Local Government Act 1993, a land owner in the region may have one caravan "which is ancillary to the approved dwelling on their land".

A large group looking to camp on private land would require development consent in line with the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and the Local Government (Manufactured Home Estates, Caravan Parks, Camping Grounds and Moveable Dwellings) Regulation 2005.

"An activity approval under Section 68 of the Local Government Act 1993 would also be required in relation to sanitation, sewage, smoke alarms, and water supply," the spokesperson said.

"During the assessment, a range of issues would be considered, including bushfire, access and egress, emergency management plans, waste disposal, and food preparation and storage."

The spokesperson said the relative zoning of the land would also have significant bearing during assessment.

Mr Curlewis said approvals and finances aside, buying property in a group presents its own challenges.

"If it's going to be more than one person buying a property ... are they going to buy in a trust? Are they going to form a company? Are they going to be tenants in common?" he said.

"If there's 100 people trying to [buy a property] that becomes very, very complicated and your legal costs are going to probably cost you more than what it's going to cost to buy the block."

Previous fundraising efforts by group have been unsuccessful. A GoFundMe page set up in late January saw more than $150,000 raised before it was reportedly removed by the fundraising platform for violating its terms of service.

Mr Curlewis said he's yet to receive any sales inquiries from protesters, but said they would be up against stiff competition in an already burgeoning regional property market.

"There's a squeeze on supply and there's very good demand at the moment," he said.

It's unknown how many protesters ended up kicking in for the land purchase scheme. But in protester social media channels this week there have been questions and accusations about where money donated has gone.

While the vast majority of protesters returned to their homes, some of them thousands of kilometres away, small clusters of campers remain in the region.

After the stragglers were evicted from Exhibition Park on Monday, they were soon turfed out of their next illegal camp at the Cotter Campground that evening.

NSW Police were aware of protesters previously based in the ACT dispersing to various sites in NSW on Tuesday.

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