Main Beach residents selling-up as hoons run riot across suburb

Residents of a luxury Gold Coast suburb are selling their homes to escape menacing hoons tearing up their streets.

Main Beach Association (MBA) leader Sue Donovan said the community were fed-up with hoons.

Sleepless residents are selling up luxury Gold Coast beachfront apartments after being invaded by late-night Logan hoons, forcing the council to introduce mobile CCTV cameras.

Police and council sources say hooning gangs based north of the city are running riot, heading to the Gold Coast where they are “treating suburban streets as racetracks”.

Their regular meet-up at the M1’s Yatala lights has forced the installation to be turned off.

A council report confirms the lights have been the focus of “extremely dangerous driving incidents” leading to special police operations and the “artworks remaining off on weekends”.

Footage obtained by the Bulletin shows hoons advertising meets there and driving to the Coast where their targets are Main Beach and The Spit.

Yatala lights — regular meet-up for hoons. Picture: Mike Batterham.

At their annual general meeting, Main Beach Association (MBA) members called on the Transport Department and City to take the lead of NSW authorities and trial noise-activated cameras.

They say the worst areas for hooning are Gold Coast Highway at Admiralty Drive, Macintosh Island, Waterways Drive, Macarthur Parade, Main Beach Parade and Seaworld Drive.

MBA leader Sue Donovan said area councillor Darren Taylor, as an interim measure, had agreed to install council-operated mobile CCTV cameras during Christmas-New Year.

“The hooning is leading to people leaving the suburb. They are sick of it,” Ms Donovan said.

“Unless we keep banging on about this, nothing will happen. It’s unbearable. You go to bed and at midnight it wakes up. It’s really affecting people’s mental health.”

An older resident, who asked not to be named, said the noise waking him up at night was not caused by high speeds but the motorbikes and cars being modified.

“They will stop at the lights and go off and stay in second gear, they are revving up. It’s all about making noise,” he said.

“It’s about letting out loud bangs. They’re backfiring. They like it down here. The sound bounces back off the high-rise and they can hear it.”

Responding to resident requests, Mr Taylor said the City’s Safety Camera Network (SCN) was aware of the proposed anti-hooning program using noise-activated cameras in NSW.

“The SCN has been liaising with Bayside Council, NSW regarding the rollout of these cameras,” he said.

“The trial program is being overseen by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority in conjunction with the NSW Police Service which are the lead enforcement agencies regarding hooning and vehicular noise nuisance matters.

“As is the case in Queensland, NSW councils do not have the powers to undertake enforcement actions on hooning matters.”

Mr Taylor cautioned residents that measuring vehicle noise emissions was a complex matter.

Noise measurement could not be taken from a moving vehicle as it is extremely challenging to obtain an accurate reading from a device placed near a roadway.

“It will be necessary for QPS and the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to carry out

a feasibly study on the use of noise-activated cameras in Queensland,” Mr Taylor said.

“If the noise-activated camera technology proves to be effective in NSW, we hope that SCN will recommend to QPS that it be adopted in badly affected areas such as Main Beach.

“So far, so good. We just have to hope that the NSW trial is effective in deterring hoon

behaviour by issuing substantial fines to those caught offending.”

Mr Taylor said he had organised with SCN to add Main Beach (Macarthur Parade and Seaworld Drive) to their mobile CCTV trailer deployment schedule.

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