Australia's boozy rite of passage

Dec 10, 2009, 9:52 GMT

Sydney - Final exams over, Australian 17-year-olds flock to resorts on the east coast for schoolies - a round of partying that for many is their first time away from home without parents to keep them in line.

'It was just fantastic,' said Tamika Jones, one of 32,000 Queensland youngsters to descend on the Gold Coast for the end-of-school frolic. 'A lot of the time we went to the beach parties, but it got a bit repetitive so we just hung out at the apartment for most of the time.'

Not all are as restrained as Jones. There were 600 arrests in the first week of schoolies this year, mostly for public drunkenness or fighting. Locals complain that schoolies have got out of hand and the Queensland state government should try keeping the kids away.

Police Union president Ian Leavers says schoolies are 'nothing more than a state-funded binge-drinking event.'

Leavers has the support of the hotels, restaurants and tour agents that popularized what Australians like to think of as a rite of passage for school-leavers.

'I think it's disgusting and I think we should get rid of the schoolies. We don't need them at all,' said Gold Coast North Chamber of Commerce head Tony White. 'It's giving the Gold Coast a terrible image around the country.'

It certainly is. Film of boys and girls drinking, vomiting and fighting has become a staple of news broadcasts around the country for the three weeks of schoolies.

Anna Bligh, the premier of Queensland state, hints that those who encouraged schoolies in the first place are now aghast at the monster they have created and which is frightening other holidaymakers away.

'Unfortunately, it's not the government that decides to send schoolies to the Gold Coast,' she said. 'They turn up there in their droves and accommodation owners, you know, make the bookings.'