A bid to continue using a car park of a popular theme park as a storage site for surging electric vehicle (EV) imports has hit a snag.<\/p>\n
Jamberoo Action Park was approached by Chinese EV maker BYD to use its car park during the off-season to store new cars arriving through Port Kembla, New South Wales’ main vehicle import hub.<\/p>\n
The park’s marketing manager, Grant Wright, said the park saw the opportunity as a “maximisation strategy” to make the most of another one of its assets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Concerns have been raised about heavy vehicle traffic on the rural road.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n
Thousands of cars were moved onto the site during the past couple of months while the park was closed to visitors.<\/p>\n
The activity has caused concerns for neighbours, who contacted Kiama Council.<\/p>\n
Residents said they had safety worries about the impact of heavy vehicle traffic and that the activity breached conditions approved for the use of the car park.<\/p>\n
The operator said the cars were being stored in “pre-delivery” mode.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kiama Council has refused a development application from Jamberoo Action Park. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)<\/p>\n
The site’s location is also a factor. Port Kembla, the primary port for large-scale vehicle imports in New South Wales, is less than an hour’s drive away.<\/p>\n
Electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly, accounting for more than 12 per cent of new cars in the first half of 2025.<\/p>\n
The national electric vehicle fleet has grown to more than 410,000 vehicles.<\/p>\n
About 77 per cent of all electric vehicles purchased this year were made in China.<\/p>\n
Car park use<\/p>\n
Kiama Council inspected the business earlier this year and issued a compliance order.<\/p>\n
Jamberoo then lodged a development application on August 22 for the land to be used as a car park for vehicles unrelated to park visitors.<\/p>\n
“Initially, we thought, cars being parked in a car park, seemed quite reasonable, but when we looked into it, we had some concerns,” Kiama Council’s director of planning, environment and communities, Ed Paterson, said.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Kiama Council rejected the application on Monday, citing rural zoning rules and traffic concerns.<\/p>\n
“The adage is it’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than approval, but we really encourage people to come and speak to us before they start doing things because it is easier and cheaper,” Mr Paterson said.<\/p>\n
Mr Wright said the park was confident in its ability to manage the operation.<\/p>\n
“Dozens and dozens of school buses turn around safely here all summer months,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A large car carrier was seen leaving the site on Tuesday afternoon.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n
“While these trucks might sound big, they are no larger than the usual vehicles that frequent these roads.”<\/p>\n
He also said that in the past, the park operated 365 days a year.<\/p>\n
The proposal has sparked discussion on local Facebook pages, with some people raising concerns about the impact on roads, while others called out the “Karens” for complaining, pointing to the irony of criticising a car park being used to park cars.<\/p>\n
Mr Wright said the car park had also been used by the University of Wollongong for electric vehicle testing, which was scheduled outside peak periods.<\/p>\n
The council decision meant the cars would have to be removed.<\/p>\n
Mr Wright said the park would work with the council to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n
“Despite this setback, we will continue to explore ways to make the most of our infrastructure while prioritising safety and guest experience,” he said.<\/p>\n
A BYD Australia spokesperson said it took its “compliance obligations seriously”.<\/p>\n
“Our storage and logistics partner manages several locations in the Port Kembla and surrounding region,” they said.<\/p>\n
“Jamberoo Action Park approved the temporary use of its vehicle spaces. When Kiama Council advised that a Development Application was required to continue storage at this site, steps were promptly taken to comply.<\/p>\n
“Vehicles stored locally are allocated to fulfil customer orders and reflect BYD’s commitment to timely deliveries of our products.”<\/p>\n
Jamberoo Action Park returns to full operations this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bid to continue using a car park of a popular theme park as a storage site for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27308,100945,12683,43,138548,138550,44,138549,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-229411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-byd","tag-car-park","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-headlines","tag-jamberoo-action-park","tag-kiama-council","tag-news","tag-regional-infrastructure","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}