A south Sydney council is proposing a ban on all jet-skis after several “life-threatening” incidents at its most popular swimming spots.
Locals say the jet-ski hooning at Brighton Le Sands is so bad they’ve started to avoid the beach on the weekend.
“They come in really close, it’s terrifying,” local mum Laura Albulario said.
“My cousin had a run-in… she was swimming close to the shore with her young son and a guy nearly ran into her.”
Bayside Council deputy mayor Heidi Lee Douglas said dangerous encounters like that are becoming all too frequent.
“The amount of dangerous activity has been increasing every summer at Botany Bay,” Douglas said.
“I get sent footage from constituents of life-threatening incidents… we’ve seen kids as young as 10 illegally driving jet-skis in erratic ways.”
“We don’t want to wait for fatality for the state government to protect swimmers.”
The deputy mayor is calling for action to make sections of Lady Robinsons Beach and parts of Brighton Le Sands Beach into no-go zones for jet-skis.
But the boating industry said a ban on jet-skis would be unfair to those who do the right thing, and called on NSW Maritime to step up its response to people doing the wrong thing.”
”We don’t support that action of exclusion zones or bans,” Neil Patchett from the Boating Industry Association said.
“We would be called on the maritime from transport and the water police to step up their compliance for those choosing to do the wrong thing.”
Transport for NSW told 9News that there’s already a jet-ski exclusion zone in place at Lady Robinson Beach.
“Lady Robinson Beach and Botany Bay are heavily patrolled by TfNSW Maritime, the Marine Area Command and local police,” a spokesperson said.
“Maritime has not been approached regarding extending or increasing these exclusion zones and currently has no plans to do so.
“Maritime works very closely with Bayside Council on education with personal watercraft operators to ‘do the right thing.'”
The current jet-ski-free zone includes two netted-off swimming areas marked by yellow buoys.
NSW Maritime has already put jet-ski exclusion zones in place on the Central Coast, including a 300-metre no-go zone at Ettalong Beach.
