Thousands marched from Victoria Square to Victoria Park on Sunday in what the Adelaide Park Lands Association said was the biggest rally in its history, SA Police estimating about 3000 joined the campaign.

Among the crowd were musician John Schumann AM, former Labor MP Michael O’Brien, former SA Director of Public Prosecutions and former state election candidate Stephen Pallaras, along with well-known author Lainie Anderson and arts critic and Journalism Hall of Fame member Samela Harris.

Liberal shadow minister Jack Batty spoke at the event, forming an unlikely alliance with his parliamentary colleagues, Greens MLCs Robert Simms and Melanie Selwood.

Addressing the crowd on Sunday, Batty acknowledged that “this is not my natural habitat” but was there to support those in his electorate who contacted him to support the campaign.

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Batty said he believed “our Adelaide park lands is one of the greatest assets our city has”.

Federal Greens senators Barbara Pocock and Sarah Hanson-Young were at the event, along with Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith, councillors Keiran Snape and Patrick Maher and Adelaide citizens of the year Sarah Ladewig-Jones and Mij Tanith.

State Development Minister Chris Picton criticised Batty for attending the event, saying “you cannot claim to support major events while trying to stop them”.

Picton referred to the Greens and the Liberals as a “uni-party” – co-opting the language used by One Nation about the Labor and Liberal parties during the March state election.

While the protesters marched throughout the city, Environment Minister Emily Bourke was in the northern park lands planting trees to spruik the state government’s revegetation project.

The number of attendees was also disputed by the state government.

Tanith – a self-described “granny” –  was previously labelled a “ragtag extremist” by Premier Peter Malinauskas and pleaded guilty to unlawfully being on premises after protesting the controversial North Adelaide Golf Course development. She was let off without conviction in July.

She attended and several signs referenced the “ragtag extremist” phrase protesters now use as one of their slogans.

The protest followed a petition led by Adelaide Park Lands protesters that amassed more than 40,000 signatures was tabled in parliament last week, triggering a parliamentary inquiry into the MotoGP and golf course plans.