The announcement of the heavy vehicle alternative route last week was met with immediate backlash and a meeting at Barkly Park was called by former Indigo councillor Roberta Horne.

More than 150 people packed into the club rooms on Friday night, speaking of deja vu and again campaigning against an unwanted truck deviation.

Retired politician Ken Jasper said more than 10 years ago, Parkins Road was put forward.

"The government said we can't spend $40 million, so there are other alternatives that were looked at.

"The issue to me is you've got to take people with you and on this occasion, they're not taking the people with them.

"The people here tonight indicate quite clearly they think this proposal can't work.

"There's suggestions of the Up River Road and the Kilborn Road."

One resident said an engineer colleague of his had commented there would be structural issues with Up River Road that would require a lot of work.

Others suggested keeping trucks in the main street, but slowing them down was an option, as trade would be lost if trucks were directed out of town.

Post office owner David Larsen said in his six years of having the business, he had seen truck numbers halve.

"Leave them in the Main Street but slow them down, put speed cameras in and police it," he said.

"Get highway patrol there - once you police it, they're going to start going around Rutherglen.

"Start with that and see how we're going next year."

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And while there was no strong consensus of what route should be taken instead, the vast majority of the group felt the Douglas, Scott and Reid Street option was a very bad proposal.

Jenny Walden-Reynolds spoke of being a tenant at the units opposite Douglas Street, which houses many older and disabled residents.

"Already we have numerous amounts of trucks ... and it is causing complications," she said.

"A lot of people like myself use a walker to get around and waiting to cross the road can be quite annoying for the poor people driving past.

"We have the Lions Club and the Senior Citizens Centre up the road.

"If we use Douglas Street as a thoroughfare permanently ... it's going to be impossible for the people in the units to get to and from the shops, and it will be impossible for the IGA to keep their car park viable."

Regional Roads Victoria plans to undertake consultation on upgrades that would occur at key intersections, but Chantelle Stones, the youngest of the speakers, questioned how Scott Street would be reworked.

"We were told on Monday there's enough room to put two trucks down, two cars parked on each side of the road, curve and guttering, and also a footpath," she said.

"Our front door is probably six, seven metres from the street now - if you add all that in, it's literally going to be on our front door.

"It's not going to work."

Fellow Scott Street resident Natalie Keaveney said a Regional Roads Victoria representative she met was "well-spoken, but unaware of the issues".

"The narrowness of the road outside the units on Douglas Street, the difficulties we already have entering and exiting the IGA car park and the difficulty of the trucks on the Federation Way intersection there - and there has been the occasional rollover," she said.

"My godmother was Mary Dunn and she had her car door taken off ... and if she was here, it would be a very interesting meeting.

"I just feel there's been enough money already spent on consultations and investigations.

"We need to stop reinventing the wheel, and we need to go to the premier and the federal government, so we can get someone to realise there is a proper issue and get it funded.

"I just hope something is done in my lifetime because as a firefighter, the last thing I want to be called out to is a fatality on Main Street because this has been fluffed around with for 50-odd years."

After nearly 50 speakers and 90 minutes, those at the meeting agreed on the motion that "unanimously rejects the adoption of any bypass route that does not remove heavy vehicles not only from the main street area, but from inside the 50-year expansion limit of the Rutherglen area".

Indigo Shire councillors Jenny O'Connor, Sophie Price, Barb Murdoch and Diane Shepheard, along with chief executive Trevor Ierino, were originally present as observers but, at the invitation of the MC, Cr O'Connor addressed the crowd.

"This is a proposal that was put forward based on the budget allocation of $4 million, this is what they came up with, they've put it out, you're telling us what you think," she said.

"This will come to us for a decision and the reason we came here tonight was to hear what the people of Rutherglen thought of that proposal.

"We've pretty much got a clear message, and we've also heard some very constructive ideas of other things that could be done.

"We will take these views into consideration."

RRV will ultimately have to go to Indigo Council for permits, as the roads that would come under the alternative route during 7am to 7pm are municipal roads.

RRV is "currently working through the detailed design process" with an aim to start construction early next year, letters sent to residents last week said.

But Regional Development Minister Jaclyn Symes said in a press conference on Friday it was "still subject to community consultation".

"VicRoads have produced a route through the initial consultation, but no final decision has been made," she said.

"I'm under no illusions the proposed route has caused some people to oppose it, some people support it.

"When you're looking at different routes to get trucks out of the main street of Rutherglen, obviously I think we should be looking at all routes and I would say no final decision has been made."