About 220 members attended an emotional meeting at Fitzroy Town Hall, despite Mr Marr and his management team successfully applying for a court injunction against it in the Tasmanian Supreme Court.

Mr Marr is feuding with many of the organisation's members and campaigners over the style of his leadership.

One of the battle's most controversial issues is an all-but-secret annual general meeting held by Mr Marr on November 5 that changed the organisation's constitution. Minutes of that meeting lodged in court last week show that only 14 of the organisation's 45,000 members attended.

Among the 14, according to long-time Wilderness Society member David Mackenzie-Smith, were four people who had in the past received big consultancies from the environment organisation. Mr Marr yesterday refused to comment to The Sunday Age on the attendees at the meeting.

The Tasmanian Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that yesterday's meeting would not constitute an official general meeting capable of electing a new board. The ruling meant that buses of interstate members were cancelled when it became clear the meeting would have no legal standing.

But members of the Save The Wilderness Society committee were buoyed by yesterday's attendance and also at the prospect of challenging Mr Marr's actions when the matter returns to the Tasmanian courts later this month. In particular, they want to prove that the November AGM was illegal.

''We are confident that our views will be upheld - that the board was elected at a secret AGM and that AGM was invalid,'' said Mr Mackenzie-Smith.

Senior campaigners and long-term members say Mr Marr and his management have overseen a bullying culture that has driven out many senior managers and staff. They also complain that the organisation, one of Australia's biggest environment groups, is wasting donors' money - now totalling $15 million annually - on expensive consultancies.