Google<\/a> Earth satellite images showed the overflow parking area filled with many rows of EVs shipped over from China<\/a>.<\/p>\n Complaints from residents about the ‘car graveyard’ eyesore prompted Kiama Council to intervene and\u00a0issue a compliance order for the breach of car park use conditions.<\/p>\n Jamberoo and BYD lodged a development application to use part of the existing car park for purposes ‘not associated with the recreation facility’.<\/p>\n ‘Vehicles will be stored for a limited period of time until they are couriered off the site or driven from the site,’ the application stated.<\/p>\n It added that just 1,800 of its 3,100 allocated car spaces were sufficient for normal park activities, which is open from late September until April.<\/p>\n The proposal was rejected by the council this week,\u00a0citing rural zoning rules and traffic concerns.<\/p>\n A Google Earth image captured in August captured hundreds of EVs imported from China being stored at Jamberoo Action Park without approved<\/p>\n Pictured is a Google Earth image of the water park before it began being used as a ‘pre-delivery’ site for EVs<\/p>\n ‘The proposed development has not adequately demonstrated that the proposal will not have adverse environmental impacts, particularly with regard to conflicts between existing additional permitted uses on the site and the surrounding natural and built environment,’ the council refusal notice stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n BYD EVs were spotted being removed from the water park on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Jamberoo Action Park management said it will comply with the council order, but not before taking a swipe at the decision\u00a0in a lengthy statement sent to Daily Mail on Wednesday.<\/p>\n ‘If you can\u2019t store cars in a carpark without impact to anyone, then something in the planning system clearly isn\u2019t working,’ the statement read.<\/p>\n ‘We should be looking for opportunities for businesses to invest and diversify, not taking them away unnecessarily.’<\/p>\n Jamberoo added that it it received legal advice confirming that the activity was permissible before lodging the application and claimed it had not seen any\u00a0 complaints formally lodged during the process.<\/p>\n ‘We also specifically requested the opportunity to respond to any concerns if they arose, but none were provided to us,’ management added.<\/p>\n Jamberoo added that the Chinese car manufacturer will be forced to scale back operations.<\/p>\n More than 1600 EVs\u00a0 will be removed from Jamberoo after a DA was rejected by Kiama Council<\/p>\n ‘At a time when government policy is actively encouraging the adoption of EVs, society must be able to accommodate that shift in a practical way,’ management continued.<\/p>\n ‘In addition to the impact on the car carrier business, there is a direct economic impact for all businesses involved and the local community.<\/p>\n ‘We\u2019ll continue to engage respectfully and transparently, but we stand by our belief that this was a practical, low-impact use of existing infrastructure that should never have been knocked back.’\u00a0<\/p>\n Daily Mail contacted BYD for comment.<\/p>\n The proposal sparked heated online debate.<\/p>\n ‘The carpark is for day parking visitors to the main water park business. It is not a dumping ground or long-term warehouse,’ one fumed.<\/p>\n Jamberoo (pictured) has slammed the council’s decision in a lengthy statement<\/p>\n Others pointed out that the DA should have been submitted before they started storing cars at Jamberoo and called for the council to issue parking fines for each day the EVs were stored there.<\/p>\n ‘Council should give them two weeks to be removed or run an auction and sell them off, then fine the owners of Jamberoo,’ another added.<\/p>\n But many Aussies had no problem with the proposal and branded concerned locals as ‘Karens’.<\/p>\n ‘What exactly are the complaints about? If the space is not being used then why not utilise it in the meantime?’ one wrote.<\/p>\n Another added: ‘Why are local residents complaining about parked cars? Especially when they bought a house right near a water park that attracts 1000s of screaming children for half the year.’<\/p>\n EVs accounted for more than 12 per cent of new cars purchased in the first half of 2025, expanding Australia’s fleet to\u00a0more than 410,000 vehicles.<\/p>\n More than three-quarters of EVs purchased in Australia this year were made in China.<\/p>\n Jamberoo Action Park statement\u00a0 <\/p>\n If you can\u2019t store cars in a car park -without impact to anyone – then something in the planning system clearly isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n \u00a0We should be looking for opportunities for businesses to invest and diversify, not taking them away unnecessarily.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before lodging our Development Application, we sought and received legal advice confirming that the activity was permissible.\u00a0<\/p>\n We shared that advice with the Kiama Municipal Council, and to date we\u2019ve not seen any legal advice from Council that contradicts it \u2014 nor have we seen any actual complaints formally lodged during the DA process.<\/p>\n \u00a0We also specifically requested the opportunity to respond to any concerns if they arose, but none were provided to us. Importantly, this isn\u2019t a new car-park \u2014 it\u2019s the same one Council asked us to build years ago, even though it exceeds our operational needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n To now be told we can\u2019t use it this way, based on someone\u2019s interpretation, feels contradictory.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019d like to thank the Councillors who supported our position and took the time to understand what we were trying to achieve.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their engagement was appreciated and adds to the confusion around why the operation was ultimately rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n The arrangement itself came about because a family-owned car carrier approached us \u2014 a small business simply trying to keep up with demand. Now, because of this decision, they\u2019ll have to scale back operations in an already tough economy.<\/p>\n \u00a0At a time when government policy is actively encouraging the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs), society must be able to accommodate that shift in a practical way. Businesses like ours were simply trying to do that \u2014 find solutions, not create problems. In addition to the impact on the car carrier business, there is a direct economic impact for all businesses involved and the local community.\u00a0<\/p>\n For us, this meant an opportunity to generate incremental income for a seasonal business that operates 150 days of the year, managing ongoing wages and maintenance budgets during this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the carrier business, it meant growth, jobs and stronger local investment. And for the broader community \u2014 now there will be fewer hours worked locally, and less opportunity for regional diversification.\u00a0<\/p>\n The broader transport and logistics industry contributes significantly to Australia\u2019s economy, it seems counter-intuitive to dismiss a low-impact, job-creating initiative in the face of that macro-trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n Council did write to us requesting additional reports, and we asked for time to provide them \u2014 yet the DA was rejected without any further discussion.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ll be pursuing the proper appeals process, because we genuinely believe this outcome doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ll continue to engage respectfully and transparently, but we stand by our belief that this was a practical, low-impact use of existing infrastructure that should never have been knocked back.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, we\u2019d like to thank everyone who\u2019s reached out to support Jamberoo Action Park in using our existing car-park a little differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s how we saw it \u2014 a sensible use of space that already exists.\u00a0<\/p>\n And that does makes sens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of new Chinese electric vehicles stored in the carpark of a popular Australian theme park must be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[85,607,557,273,111,43,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-93687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/103195705-15214865-image-a-50_1761098341904.jpg\")
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