After all who would travel more than 100 kilometres to participate in what is meant to be the "local" level of government.

But residents on the plains of the Riverina and in the mountains of the Upper Murray are staring at exactly that prospect under the NSW Government's planned local government mergers.

Lockhart and Corowa ratepayers face 240-kilometre round trips to each town, while Khancoban citizens would spend four hours on the road to reach Tumut.

Proposed marriages of Lockhart, Urana and Corowa, Jerilderie and Berrigan and Tumbarumba and Tumut are proving geography, just as much as finance, is worth considering in the fate of these shires.

It is apparent those in Sydney behind the plans have not understood the differences between communities which may share common ground on a map, but operate in different spheres.

You can imagine a would-be expert saying Tumbarumba and Tumut are both in the mountains, there is only 69 kilometres separating them – how many differences can there be?

Well according to the Tumbarumba locals everything from police administration to the weather to Aboriginal tribes are at odds with Tumut.

Former Tumbarumba mayor George Martin this week told the NSW Government's independent delegate reviewing the merger plan that there have been constant battles over thousands of years between his community and Tumut.

"There's always been this fault line somewhere just north of Tumbarumba," he said referring to different Aboriginal tribes having inhabited each district.

Wiradjuri were native to Tumut, but Tumbarumba had been a stronghold of the Walgalu.

"They set out pathways which the pastoralists followed," Mr Martin said.

He added it was the geography which resulted in Tumbarumba looking south to the Murray and Tumut west along the Murrumbidgee.

Aboriginal ties are not mentioned in the NSW Government's merger outline, nor are the words "distance" or "kilometres".

Instead it is focussed on numbers and lining them up in a way which makes a merger seem a financial boon.

There is a $20 million "financial benefit" over 20 years and the NSW Government will put up $15 million to "meet merger costs and provide a head start on investing in services and infrastructure that the savings from mergers will ultimately support".

Sounds impressive, but the numbers sour against the money likely to ebb from towns losing spending from council workers.

Tumbarumba supermarket owner Rod Gollan fears losing $200,000 a year, that's $4 million in 20 years and just for one business.

The council receives the equivalent of $500,000 through work done by volunteers each year, you can expect a merged entity would not engender as much devotion.

Tumbarumba residents are isolated and the shire's population of 3500 makes them vulnerable, but their council has been deemed financially viable.

In 2013 it won the AR Bluett Award as the most progressive rural shire in NSW.

Like all Riverina councils on the chopping block it faces a rocky ride, which is not helped by bureaucrats who probably put more faith in a GPS than local knowledge when it comes to geography.