It was heated at times as representatives from the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) explained how they, and the federal government, had arrived at the preferred Inland Rail route, and outlined the next steps in narrowing the study corridor to a final route.

​Inland Rail’s program property manager Peter Dorrough said no determinations would be made about land acquisitions until the Inland Rail alignment was refined.

“My role … has been to ensure that landholders get not a dollar more and not a dollar less than what they are fully entitled to,” he said.

“We will approach that with a fair and reasonable attitude towards each individual owner and their individual circumstances.

“The whole process of compensation is that you are in a financial position exactly the same as you were before.”

NSW Farmers treasurer, Trangie’s Peter Wilson, questioned whether landowners would be compensated for business interruption, emotional and historical attachment to the land or the costs associated with relocation.

“I … have quite some experience with compensation for acquisition … it always seems to me that the landowner has a really hard job getting full and proper compensation,” Mr Wilson said.

Residents of the High Park and Villeneuve estates questioned whether there would be compensation for the loss of serenity, with the rail line set to run 24 hours a day.

Mr Dorrough confirmed landowners and others with a financial interest in an acquired property could be entitled to compensation, but people outside the corridor were unlikely to be eligible.

“That’s really a deficiency in the Land Acquisition (Just Terms Compensation) Act,” Mr Wilson said.

“If ARTC just stick to what the Act describes, there will be people who probably think they’re insufficiently compensated.”

He said the lack of consultation was an ongoing issue across the study corridor.

“Putting in that corridor without contacting those people is just abysmal,” Mr Wilson said. “I can only hope that these promises about how it will go forward from here come to pass.”