The City of Kalgoorlie Boulder approved the construction of a mosque in the inland city during a heated council meeting on Monday night, passing the motion six votes to four.

Acting mayor Allan Pendal said it was clear from the start of public question time the issue would be hotly contested, with what he described as a “vocal minority” clearly opposed to the planned construction of the mosque on Park Street in the suburb of Williamstown.

An alternative motion was put forward during the meeting that would have seen the application sent back to the council’s all-purpose committee to seek more information. The vote on that motion was deadlocked at 5-5, with Cr Pendal using his casting vote, as presiding officer, to defeat the motion. The original motion was then moved and passed 6-4.

Cr Pendal said the council was bound to judge the application on planning grounds, something he believed the anti-mosque supporters couldn’t comprehend.

“It was the biggest council meeting I’ve seen in nine years, we couldn’t actually fit everyone in the council chambers,” he said. “There was strong representation against the item. They were very vocal but they couldn’t seem to understand that we couldn’t judge the application on political or moral or religious grounds. This was a planning decision and they didn’t understand that despite me explaining it to them five or six times.”

He said the heckling of the anti-mosque group reached its peak during the debate of the item and at several points descended into abuse of council.

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Two Facebook pages waging a campaign against a proposed mosque in Kalgoorlie-Boulder have attracted more than 800 “likes” as the local council prepares to debate the item next month.

A planning application to build a place of public worship at 12 Park Street in the Kalgoorlie suburb of Williamstown was lodged by the Kalgoorlie Islamic Community Centre on June 3.

While the application has not yet gone before councillors, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has directly contacted surrounding homes and businesses and encouraged them to submit written feedback before close of business on Monday.

A Facebook page, “Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie“, was created on June 25 and has attracted 735 members in just five days. It states: “Help us stop the mosque! This page is for practical support to the residents of Kalgoorlie opposing the Mosque. No Islamic debate or trolls tolerated here.”

Many of the posts featured on the page link to anti-Islam article and websites, and the page appears to hold a close association to an eastern states Facebook group, “Stop the mosque in Bendigo”. Far-right opponents of the planned Bendigo mosque recently received a donation of $10,000 to help fund their campaign.

The page has also set up a petition on change.org, calling on the council and local politicians, including Nationals MLA Wendy Duncan and Liberal MLA Graham Jacobs, to block the application. The petition, which has 583 signatures, states that “the council should outright DENY Muslims to build a mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder to the very end”. The vast majority of signatures come from outside the Kalgoorlie region and even includes signatures from the US.

A second Facebook page, Stop the mosque in Kalgoorlie Boulder, is now also campaigning against the mosque. Created on June 24, the page has 131 “likes” and has shared links with the Patriot Defence League Australia – Eastern Victoria Charter, a group that bills itself as nation-wide “pro Australia” club, committed to protecting Australia from “Islamization”.

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