An entity known as Nelson Place Village Pty Ltd has proposed a multi-million-dollar residential development, potentially of 16 storeys, at the former Port Phillip Woollen Mill site in Nelson Place.

Fairfax chairman Ron Walker is an investor behind the proposal. Addressing Saturday's meeting, speaker Shelley Oldham urged residents to put pressure on State Government ministers through every means, including Freedom of Information requests.

"Ministers do their work advised by bureaucrats - I was a senior bureaucrat, I know how they work.

"When a FoI inquiry comes into a department, a minister gets very, very nervous.

"The Government will be very keen to get this [development up] in their next budget cycle, but they will not be keen to damage their reputation before the next election, which is next year."

Ms Oldham told the gathering, which included Hobsons Bay Mayor Peter Hemphill, that the council had a vested interest in acquiring rates revenue.

Meeting organiser Rennis Witham said robust arguments had to be presented to the Government so that objectors were not dismissed as precious latte-drinking Williamstown people.

"We may be precious, latte-drinking Williamstown people, but it's our Williamstown and we'll decide when and where we'll drink the latte. The history of Williamstown is right here and now. We've got a nanosecond to keep it."

A bucket was passed to start a fighting fund for what residents expect will be a costly and drawn-out campaign. Deciding on a name for the coalition of community groups opposing the development was the last item of business. Introducing himself as a local ratbag who drank lattes every day, Godfrey Moase asked the crowd to vote with a show of hands on their preferred name for a working group.

Save Williamstown was the name chosen.

It will hold a public rally on June 28.