MORE than 20 abandoned vehicles have been recovered in bushland at Williamtown in a police operation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Port Stephens police working with the Royal Australian Air Force and National Parks and Wildlife Service began Operation Hornets, a probe into unauthorised use of crown lands last Thursday.
A total of 22 vehicles were found in bushland spanning Williamtown, Salt Ash and Oyster Cove.
Seven of those cars were previously reported stolen, including one in 2012.
Port Stephens senior constable Alison Stewart, in charge of the operation, said the cars were found abandoned off access roads.
She said this indicated that the cars had been driven to their dumping spot.
About six vehicles were found in swamp land, and due to their deteriorated condition will not be able to be recovered.
Senior constable Stewart said some vehicles had been in the bush so long they had rusted to the point that there was no way to identify them.
“Some have been there for some time; so long they are rusted and deteriorated so badly we can’t get chassis numbers,” she said.
Police spent the full day of August 18 driving through bushland to locate the cars.
About 15 cars were collected and removed from the bush by a tow truck company to be turned into scrap metal.
The find follows on from a police operation in September 2015 when 14 cars were found laying at the bottom of the Hunter River at Tomago.
Four cars were retrieved from their watery graves.
Two of the four cars pulled out of the water were found to have been stolen from the Maitland area in 2009 and 2010.
Senior constable Stewart, the Port local area command’s crime prevention officer, was also in charge of the September operation.
She said there could more car retrieval operations in the future after receiving information that there could be abandoned cars in other parts of bushland in national parks around Port Stephens.
Operation Hornets also follows on from the arrest of five people in June for offences related to illegal use of Williamtown park lands.
Two more people were arrested on August 18 after they were seen by Operation Hornets police walking through Commonwealth-owned land at Salt Ash.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.