The 9.4km route, which starts on the Lindis Valley floor and rises along Shepherds Creek to the Ardgour Conservation Area in the Dunstan Mountains, is a paper road owned by the Central Otago District Council.
The unnamed road, known as the historic Shepherds Creek road, passes through an area with 19th-century gold mining ruins, and Santana Minerals Ltd is hoping to get permission to mine the area using the new fast-track legislation.
Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust former president Martin Anderson said Santana was behaving "in a high-handed fashion" by blocking the road and people needed to stand up to it.
Santana Minerals has placed a no-entry warning sign on a gate in the Lindis Valley that leads to private property. The Shepherds Creek road starts about 25m inside the gate — requiring people who want to access the road to cross a strip of privately owned land.
Previously, access was not an issue. However, the new sign on the gate says "private property, trespassers will be prosecuted", and there is no alternate way of getting on to the road.
The start of Shepherds Creek road intersects with a nearby public road Thomson Gorge Rd. However, a fence bars access between the two roads.
Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission regional field adviser Amie Pont said people had a right to use the road without being "obstructed or hindered".
The commission had already told a Santana-hired consultancy firm that blocking or stopping public access without going through legal channels was "outside of the legislation".
The Otago Daily Times asked Santana how it was working to remedy the situation and to help people uphold their access rights.
"You cannot trespass across private property to access a paper road unless you have landowner permission," she said.
Ms Pont said any thought of stopping a road in the area could only be considered in circumstances where "improved access" was created in return, still giving access to all historical sites, including old gold mining areas known as the Rise and Shine, Come in Time and Shrek deposits.
Santana is hoping to mine these deposits.
Both the Shepherds Creek road and Thomson Gorge Rd run through the area to the Ardgour Conservation Area.
Any alternate routes would have to be up and running before consideration of stopping an existing road and that would include formed roads, heritage viewing platforms and signs, Ms Pont added.
Loop tracks would be welcomed, she said.
Forest & Bird Central Otago Lakes branch committee member Anne Steven said if public routes remained barred, people should "keep hassling until resolved".
"Things can’t just drift on."
Council planning and infrastructure acting group manager Quinton Penniall said it was working to "resolve" the road block.
