Dozens of teenagers filmed hooning through a golf course on e-bikes on Sydney’s Northern Beaches have left police and local residents alarmed and triggered a major safety debate.
Officers were called to Long Reef Golf Club at Collaroy about 12.15pm on Friday following reports a large group of young people had entered the grounds and ridden across the course.
Police said the riders dispersed before patrols arrived, and inquiries remain ongoing.
Clips of the incident were first posted online by Cromer Golf Club, which shared the vision on Facebook before it spread widely across local community pages.
Concerned residents and other social media users have since gone online to voice their fury at the chaotic scenes.
“Kids have now found new unregulated and unmonitored spaces on the Internet since the social media ban, it has allowed them to network with other kids that are in close proximity to them to organised this type of ‘event’,” one person wrote.
“Been riding bikes for years never thought of doing that once. It’s called being raised with respect,” wrote another.
“What a horrible example of teenagers,” wrote a third.
Another video published by Manly Observer showed a large group moving through nearby streets earlier that afternoon, with the outlet warning, “Heads up, the dudes are on parade today.”
The footage has fuelled a broader debate that has intensified in recent months as e-bike numbers surge across Sydney, particularly around safety.
Last month, the NSW Coalition said if elected it would force children, food delivery riders, and share-bike users to carry licence plates on their e-bikes under a proposal aimed at cracking down on reckless behaviour on roads and footpaths.
The plan is designed to put a stop to the rising number of complaints involving riders weaving through pedestrians and modifying bikes to reach high speeds.
It would create an Australian-first registration system for groups considered the highest risk.
Shadow transport and roads minister Natalie Ward, who has developed the policy, said the plan strikes the “right balance” between keeping people safe across NSW and giving riders the freedom on their bike.
“We must regulate for safety over the next decade – not just next year,” she told The Daily Telegraph last December.
Ms Ward said many residents found the recent behaviour at the weekend confronting.
“It’s swarms of gangs of kids on bikes, and literally, it’s e-bike cowboys,” she told 2GB.
She said some of the groups seen across the Northern Beaches involved “30 to 50 kids on a bike swarming together, that horrific video footage of the golf course being torn up by kids riding on it and tearing up the greens there.
“It’s got to be incredibly intimidating for people,” she said, adding that young people should be encouraged to ride but not embark on “mass rideouts”.
The government is already considering insurance requirements for private e-bikes after a parliamentary inquiry recommended expanding cover beyond shared hire schemes, which are now required to have compulsory third-party insurance.
Transport Minister John Graham said regulating e-bikes had been a priority since Labor came to government, describing the sector as largely unregulated.
He said he will engage with the Coalition on ideas but suggested the proposal on license plates may not achieve the intended outcomes.
“If their children are riding unregistered, uninsured motorbikes, they could be liable for any injuries sustained,” Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby told Nine News.
The Minns government flagged changes late last year, announcing plans to halve the maximum power limit of e-bikes sold in the state.
That decision came only hours after a fatal crash at Ultimo, one of four rider deaths involving e-bikes in NSW in 2025.