Members of a Wollongong motorcycle club that provided a training ground for motorcycle legends Wayne Gardner, Jay and Ryan Marmont and Troy Corser fear the club will be forced to close after being told to vacate its home at Kembla Grange.
Yellow Rock Mini Cycle Club president Phil Holdup said the club was just 18 months into a five-year licence to use part of the Whytes Gully Waste Depot site.
But without warning, land owner Wollongong City Council has told the club the agreement will be terminated early.
The club has been given until August 31 to vacate the site, although Mr Holdup said he had been given a verbal assurance the club could probably stay until the end of the year.
The council has started planning for a third stage to extend the life of the Whytes Gully tip by around 50 years.
The existing stage will reach capacity in four years. There are also plans to construct a new recycling facility by 2013.
Mr Holdup questioned the council's claims it would "consult with the community" about Whytes Gully, saying the club was not consulted.
"Surely the council should look further ahead than 18 months when they enter into a five-year lease," Mr Holdup said.
"We have spent about $25,000 putting tracks in and getting the club up and going on this land.
"We wouldn't have done that if we knew this would happen."
Wollongong MP Noreen Hay has gone in to bat for the club that started in 1965 and has been at Kembla Grange for 13 years.
"I have been in negotiations with the council and we are close to agreeing on an extension of time," Ms Hay said.
"That extension would allow the club, Wollongong and Shellharbour councils more time to look for a venue. We don't want a situation where it would disadvantage residents so it needs to be in a suitable area."
A council spokeswoman said it would continue to negotiate more time, but the licence terms allowed it to be terminated by either party with six months' notice.
"The club was aware at the time of signing the licence that the site would be needed by council in the future for the expansion of the Whytes Gully Waste Depot," the spokeswoman said.
Mr Holdup said the club's membership had dived two-thirds, from 150 families to just 50 families in 2006 when the private land it used adjacent to Whytes Gully was sold for development.
The club was without a home for the two years it took to negotiate the council licence.
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