Dozens of teenagers filmed hooning through a golf course on e-bikes on Sydney\u2019s Northern Beaches have left police and local residents alarmed and triggered a major safety debate.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police said the riders dispersed before patrols arrived, and inquiries remain ongoing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Concerned residents and other social media users have since gone online to voice their fury at the chaotic scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids have now found new unregulated and unmonitored spaces on the Internet since the social media ban, it\u00a0has allowed them to network with other kids that are\u00a0in close proximity to\u00a0them to\u00a0organised\u00a0this type of \u2018event\u2019,\u201d\u00a0one person\u00a0wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen riding bikes for years never thought of doing that once.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0called being raised with respect,\u201d wrote another.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a horrible example of teenagers,\u201d wrote a third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another video published by Manly Observer showed a large group moving through nearby streets earlier that afternoon, with the outlet warning, \u201cHeads up, the dudes are on parade today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The footage has\u00a0fuelled\u00a0a broader debate that has intensified in recent months as e-bike numbers surge across Sydney, particularly around safety.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The plan is designed to put a stop to the rising number of complaints involving riders weaving through pedestrians and\u00a0modifying\u00a0bikes to reach high speeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It would create an Australian-first registration system for groups considered the highest risk.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must regulate for safety over the next decade – not just next year,\u201d she told The Daily Telegraph last December.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms\u00a0Ward said\u00a0many residents found the\u00a0recent\u00a0behaviour\u00a0at the\u00a0weekend\u00a0confronting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s swarms of gangs of kids on bikes, and literally, it\u2019s e-bike cowboys,\u201d she told 2GB.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said some of the groups seen across the Northern Beaches involved \u201c30 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got to be incredibly intimidating for people,\u201d she said, adding that young people should be encouraged to ride but not embark on \u201cmass rideouts\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government is already considering insurance requirements for private e-bikes after a parliamentary inquiry recommended expanding cover beyond shared hire schemes, which\u00a0are now required to\u00a0have compulsory third-party insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Transport Minister John Graham\u00a0said regulating e-bikes had been a priority since Labor came to government, describing the sector as largely unregulated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he will engage with the Coalition on ideas but suggested the proposal on license plates may not achieve the intended outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf their children are riding unregistered, uninsured motorbikes, they could be liable for any injuries sustained,\u201d\u00a0 Pedestrian Council of Australia chairman Harold Scruby told Nine News.<\/p>\n
The Minns government flagged changes late last year, announcing plans to halve the maximum power limit of e-bikes sold in the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
That decision came only hours after a fatal crash at Ultimo, one of four rider deaths involving e-bikes in NSW in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of teenagers filmed hooning through a golf course on e-bikes on Sydney\u2019s Northern Beaches have left police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,222355,13729,755,222356,222256,222357,25261,2733,85],"class_list":["post-422647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-e-bike-crackdown","tag-e-bikes","tag-golf","tag-golf-course-chaos","tag-long-reef-golf-club","tag-natalie-ward","tag-northern-beaches","tag-nsw","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422647","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=422647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}