Dean Rankin, a self-employed mechanic, has lived in Wanaka for more than four decades and said he started the petition because he was "fed up with the direction we are going with the Queenstown Lakes District Council".
He believed the council wasted money, infrastructure and roading projects were taking too much time and no local contractors were involved in any of the work.
Mr Rankin said he had complained to councillors but it had "fallen on deaf ears", so he contacted the Local Government Commission to ask how Wanaka could go it alone.
He was told the first step was to start a petition and have at least 10% of the eligible voters support a commission investigation and review of the district’s representation.
On Friday night, Mr Rankin started his "Petition for the Upper Clutha to break away from the QLDC", and by yesterday morning he had more than half of the 1500 signatures required.
"If we can overwhelm them [the commission] with an astonishing amount rather than the 10% that would be the icing on the cake to say, ‘hey, we mean business’."
Mr Rankin said he had been amazed at the support on social media and the number of phone calls he had received from people "who you would not expect would support the idea."
"Everyone seems to say the same thing, all our ratepayers’ money is going over the hill and what are we seeing back for it?"
He said currently the two smallest mainland councils in New Zealand were the Kaikoura and Mackenzie District Councils, both with populations smaller than 4000.
The three West Coast councils each have populations of less than 10,000.
The latest census put Wanaka’s at more than 13,000.
The ODT also contacted Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult, council chief executive Mike Theelen and Wanaka Community Board chairman Barry Bruce for a comment but did not receive replies.
Mr Rankin said he expected the process to be a long one but the petition was "the first step to get what we want".
