Residents flag e-bikes and hooning noise at police forum in Helensburgh

Northern suburbs residents reported two pressing problems at last Thursday’s NSW Police forum at Tradies Helensburgh. One is relatively new: “gangs” of teenage e-bikers posing a threat to pedestrians and trespassing on local properties. The other has been a longstanding source of sleepless nights: noise from cars and motorbikes on Lawrence Hargrave Drive’s “late-night raceway”.

The March 12 public meeting attracted about 65 residents and was led by Wollongong's police commander, Superintendent Karen Cook, who organised the event in collaboration with Maryanne Stuart, the Member for Heathcote, after locals expressed concerns about rising crime.

“Policing is a limited resource,” Supt Cook told the meeting. 

“Like all emergency services and community-based customer service organisations, we have to prioritise our work based on the risk and what resources we have available, and the urgency of that job, the local intelligence that we have."

Police presented a slide show of statistics from the past 12 months, showing a series of maps, with Wollongong divided into four sectors – north, central, south and west (an area of mostly bushland plateau). 

According to a slide of All Crime by Sector, just 3.6% occurred in the north compared with 38.3% in the central zone, 57.5% in the south and 0.6% in the west. 

Compared to "all crime", domestic violence figures for the north were higher at 6.2%, but still a small percentage of  the Wollongong total. The northern sector also had comparatively low rates of violent crime at 5.2% over the past year. 

During a Q&A, several people reported hooning on Lawrence Hargrave Drive. A Coalcliff resident said it was a problem on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, from 10pm until midnight, while a Stanwell Park resident said the sound of drag racers reverberated through the valley "like an amphitheatre".

“This has been a problem for decades,” Neighbourhood Forum convenor Warwick Erwin told the Illawarra Flame afterwards. 

Efforts to address traffic noise have included numerous calls for sound and speed cameras, a 2021 petition to “Reduce traffic noise on Lawrence Hargrave Drive” signed by more than 500 people, and a volunteer-run survey in 2022 that found the noise catchment impacts more than 6000 people along Lawrence Hargrave Drive from Stanwell Tops to Bulli.

Warwick believes the lack of a solution is partly due to residents running into a “brick wall of bureaucracy”. 

Lawrence Hargrave Drive is not Wollongong City Council’s domain – as a main road, it is Transport for NSW’s responsibility. Speeding is a police matter, and noise cameras come under the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA).  

At Thursday’s meeting, residents expressed ongoing frustration, with one woman saying: “I ring up regularly, at least every fortnight, sometimes twice a week. We live on Lawrence Hargrave Drive at Stanwell Park – the noise is unbearable.”

The meeting also heard from a resident wanting 24/7 staffing of Helensburgh Police Station, which cost $3 million to build and opened in November 2024.

“Helensburgh is never going to be a 24/7 police station,” Supt Cook said, adding it would take 20 officers permanently based in Helensburgh and “the need is not there”.

“It's important for us to have police out in the road doing their job, responding to your calls for service and preventing crime as well.”

Gone are the days of walking into a police station to report a crime, police explained. 

“Policing has changed a lot in the … 30-odd years I've been a police officer,” Supt Cook said. “Technology has advanced so much in that time to today, where each of our police cars is a mobile police station. 

“I know that there is a perception that the fact that the police station is not open every day, so you don't have a police presence here. 

"I can assure you that you do.” 

Officers said policing may be done covertly, as in the case of last September’s successful Strike Force Template operation in Helensburgh, which led to a man’s arrest and the seizure of $265,000 worth of drugs. 

Police warned car thieves were looking for “easy opportunities”, so residents should lock their car and house doors and install CCTV if possible.

Maryanne Stuart thanked Supt Cook and her team for attending the evening forum and issued a plea to residents to report crime.

“I think there has been under-reporting of incidents in this area,” she said. “It’s really important that you log those calls. 

“When we've got speedway racing happening along Lawrence Hargrave Drive, I want all of you to pick up the phone and ring 131 444.

“We're close to the M1; maybe because we're so far away from the rest of Wollongong, people think it's an easy target, but the more that you ring and log these calls, the better the data is going to be for the police to task being up here more often.

“When we do the Coffee With A Cop, I would really encourage you to come and have a look at the police cars, because they are mobile police offices.” 

Wrapping up, Supt Cook said: “If you only take one message from tonight, please, if something happens, please report it. Use one of the reporting methods available to you.”

Those methods are: 

• call 000 for emergencies or a crime in progress;
• call 131 444 for non-urgent crime reporting and general enquiries;
• call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 to provide crime information confidentially;
• submit a report online via the NSW Police Force Community Portal.