Sydney Harbour party boats: residents push for new laws to reign in noisy behaviour

Party boat operators are defending their operations on Sydney Harbour as harbourside residents call for new measures to reign in instances of noisy patron behaviour.

A group of “privileged NIMBYs” has lashed out at noisy party boats cruising Sydney Harbour each weekend, with harbourside residents calling for new measures to silence the fun.

Curfews, increased fines and enforceable noise limits are among the measures some homeowners are pushing the state government to implement in response to rising numbers of chartered vessel operators taking sail on harbour waters.

Some homeowners say they have forked out thousands of dollars to soundproof homes due to revellers letting loose on vessels such as bucks and hen night cruises, party boats, and yachts hosting live music and DJ sessions.

However, party boat operators have defended their operations on Sydney Harbour with claims majority “follow the rule book”.

Community group Friends of Sydney Harbour is now locked in meetings with Transport for NSW to discuss an overhaul of the state’s chartered vessels rule book which currently carries restrictions including a 200m exclusion zone from the shoreline for boats playing amplified music between 8am and midnight.

Members of the group have suggested a raft of new laws including enforceable noise limits on boats, increased exclusion zones near homes, and curfews relating to the number of hours party boats can spend on the water.

Boat owners say there has been a rise in chartered vessel operations in recent years.

Mosman Bay resident Mark Gaudin, who works as a NSW Ambulance Rescue Helicopter pilot, said disturbances from boats meant he was often unable to sleep before early morning shifts.

“Everyone realises when you live in a city and there’s going to be some noise, but the problem is during the peak times it starts on a Friday afternoon at about 4pm and goes all the through to 10pm on a Sunday and a fair bit during the week now too. It’s just relentless,” he said.

“It would never happen anywhere else in Australia and there’s nowhere you could park a truck on land and have a dance party for 72 hours. But the harbour seems to be a free for all.

“If it was one boat it would be okay, but when there’s 20 to 30 that come into the bay one after the other and compete with each other for noise that’s when it becomes an issue.

“We’ve spent $30,000 on soundproofing and double glazing windows but we still have to close our doors and windows and can’t use the balcony for things like barbecues because of the noise. It’s getting to the point where we’ve actually considered moving.

“It may come across like a privileged NIMBY issue of residents on the waterfront not letting people have a good time on the harbour but it’s not the case – all we want is a balance so the harbour can be enjoyed by everyone.”

The concerns come amid a string of recent incidents involving chartered vessels including the MV John Cadman III which was shut down for three days by Liquor and Gaming NSW in December due to serious licence breaches.

Liquor and Gaming NSW said the closure order was in response to an undercover police operation that identified “extremely intoxicated passengers” and a patron who was knocked unconscious on the dancefloor and left on board for the remainder of the four-hour cruise before staff bundled him into an Uber and sent him home without recording the incident.

A generic of a Cadman Cruises boat.

Lachlan Wicks, a manager at Cadman Cruises which owns the John Cadman III, said the company was continuing to work with Liquor and Gaming in response to the incident and had now installed CCTV cameras and enacted a revised plan of management banning patrons from drinking alcoholic shots.

“That’s all implemented so far and the boat’s still in operation,” he said.

Operators of other chartered vessels including Justin Maynard – who owns UCruise – said the majority of chartered vessels operate within the rule book.

“Most of us do the right thing but unfortunately it’s just a handful that bring that bad name to the industry and we all get painted with the same brush,” he said.

A photo of the John Cadman III party boat.

“We do most of our cruises at Atoll Bay near Taronga Zoo because we can drop the anchor without being a pain in the arse to neighbours. We have four vessels and have not had a single interaction with police.”

Mr Maynard said the industry had thrived over the last two years as the number of operators have increased within the already competitive market.

“During Covid the industry was hitting targets we never saw before because no one was able to go overseas so a lot of Sydneysiders were enjoying what Sydney had to offer instead,” he said.

“There was a time when you could have five people at a house but I could take 20 people on a boat under the 4 sqm rule – in one way we benefited from the rules and didn't have the same restrictions as land based venues.

“Because of that, more people have realised the opportunities in chartered vessels and you’ve also got owners investing in more boats.”

Residents say noise is an issue on both sides of the harbour.

Transport for NSW said it currently had a code of conduct which applied to chartered vessels which stated it was “an offence for a person to cause a vessel to be used on navigable waters in such a way as to emit offensive noise”.

Under the code, chartered vessels operating amplified music systems must stay 200m away from the shore between 8am to midnight, and from midnight to 8am are prohibited from anchoring and must stay west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Cremorne Point resident David Morris, a member of Friends of Sydney Harbour, said the complexity in finding a solution to noise was due to the multiple state government agencies tasked with regulatory control including Transport for NSW, Liquor and Gaming NSW, the Environmental Protection Authority and NSW Police.

Friends of Sydney Harbour members John Molyneux (centre) and David Morris (right) pictured in 2016.

“The root cause is there are quite old laws that don’t really take into account the new acoustics, the power of beat boxes and amplified music systems that are now quite prevalent in a number of party boats,” he said.

Transport for NSW in a statement said it continued to respond directly to complaints relating to noise from vessels.

“Where those vessels can be accurately identified, TfNSW boating safety officers respond immediately if available on the water at the time of the complaint,” a spokesman said.

“TfNSW continues to work with NSW Police Marine Area Command to manage complaints relating to noise from vessels. Incidents are investigated on a case-by-case basis.”

NewsLocal contacted the Commercial Vessels Association – which represents the interests of Commercial Vessel Operators – for further comment but the group declined to comment.

A petition has meanwhile been started by residents in Taylors Bay which calls for a stop to the “offensive noise emitted by the ever increasing fleet of party boats that visit and defile the tranquil waters” on weekends to be brought under control.