Thousands of new Chinese electric vehicles have been left stranded at one of Australia’s best known amusement parks after being stored there without council approval.
Photos taken at the Jamberoo Action Park south of Sydney show endless rows of unregistered BYD vehicles, including Shark utes and Sealion SUVs, covering car spots and overflow areas at the popular water park.
The site is a temporary home to countless cars with no number plates, covered in protective wrapping and shipping labels used before cars reach showrooms.
Yet neither Jamberoo Action Park, BYD, nor its former distributor EVDirect – is willing to explain why the cars are there or who is responsible for them.
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Locals say the vehicles appeared suddenly a few months ago, describing it as “creepy” and a “car graveyard”.
Kiama Council said it was alerted to the vehicles two to three months ago following numerous complaints.
“Kiama Council is aware that the Jamberoo Action Park car park and overflow parking areas
are being used to store a significant number of new vehicles,” a spokesperson said.
The council said the vehicles were stored without approval and that compliance officers have since intervened.
“Council’s Compliance Officers have inspected the site and issued notices to the property owners of the action park,” the spokesperson said.
Google Earth satellite images recorded on August 5 show more than 1600 cars at the site, with its swimming pools drained of water over winter.
Australian Amalgamated Terminals records show more cars arrived after being offloaded at Port Kembla between August 17 and 21.
The property’s owners later lodged a Development Action (DA) with the council, seeking to legalise the activity and turn the carpark into a storage facility.
Filed on September 4, 2025, the DA describes a “change of use and new structure – car park and passenger transport facility” to allow the use of part of the existing car park for purposes “not associated with the recreation facility”.
But Council said that the site cannot operate as a logistics or storage centre while the DA is under review – which means the cars may be effectively stranded – unable to be moved, or handled for logistics without risking a further breach.
Kiama Council has issued Jamberoo’s owners with an “Intention to Order to Comply under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act” – essentially a warning to stop using the land for storage without consent.
“No formal orders have been issued at this stage,” a council spokesperson said.
“Council is working with the owners of Jamberoo Action Park to ensure the site is only operated for authorised uses.”
A BYD spokesperson confirmed its vehicles are managed by an external logistics provider rather than BYD directly, but the company declined to name the operator.
“In NSW, BYD’s vehicle storage is managed by a storage and logistics partner, who oversee a number of locations in the Port Kembla and surrounding regions,” they said.
Public records show BYD took full control of its Australian distribution and logistics in mid-July 2025, ending its previous arrangement with EVDirect.
Since then, BYD has appointed a vehicle logistics and planning manager as part of its push for vertical integration.
An EVDirect spokesperson reaffirmed the distribution responsibilities transitioned from EVDirect to BYD in mid-July 2025, leaving questions over who is overseeing the cars now – and why they were parked at Jamberoo in the first place.
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Both BYD and EV Direct declined to clarify who organised or approved the use of the water park for vehicle storage.
The situation reveals the scale of BYD’s explosive growth in Australia.
Cox Automotive Australia Corporate Affairs Manager and Analyst Mike Costello said China’s high output and intense competition have pushed automakers to look abroad, with Australia one of the most open and attractive countries.
“They are making significant inroads into the Australian market,” he said.
“High output of vehicles in China has led to aggressive discounting there, making the drive to export to other markets with relatively open trade policies stronger. Australia is often the first landing spot.”
Chinese brands are on track to account for around 20 per cent of new car sales in 2025, with four of the top 12 brands – GWM, BYD, MG and Chery – all Chinese, Costello said.
“It is likely that China will become the number one source of vehicle imports to Australia, having been number two last month – behind only Japan,” he said.
The brand has an ambitious sales target for 2026, aiming to overtake the likes of Hyundai, Kia and Mazda to sit toward the top of the sales charts.
BYD chief operating officer Stephen Collins says BYD’s rapid-fire approach lends “a real advantage over a lot of legacy brands which tend to be, compared to this, pretty slow”, crediting “record response times” for the brand’s growth.
“We’re here for the long term and we’re just laying the foundations down for being a leading player in the next five to ten years,” Collins said.
“This time last year we were number 16 in the market.
“Here today we’re now number eight … next year, if we weren’t close or in the top three, I think we’d be disappointed.
“We want to keep moving, we want to keep the trajectory going.”
The Council said it will continue to monitor the site while the DA is under review.
Jamberoo Action Park did not respond to the request for comments.
– with James Chung and David McCowen
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