Gold Coast Schoolies behaviour leads to record low arrests and praise
Gold Coast Schoolies have earned praise as "the nicest bunch" ever after record low arrests and a dramatic transformation in behaviour.
The Gold Coast Schoolies class of 2025 had been given top marks as “the nicest bunch” ever seen after what were believed to be record low arrests.
The first week of Schoolies ended on Saturday with bleary-eyed Queensland teens checking out of their apartments to make way for the next wave of partying graduates from the southern states.
Police said only 20 school-leavers had been arrested during the week, down from 30 last year.
“There were fewer arrests than we have seen in the past,” Gold Coast police acting chief superintendent Brett Jackson said.
“There’s definitely less consumption of alcohol and illicit substances going on, so that was positive to see.
“They looked after each other, they celebrated safely and it made our job as police and keeping them safe that much easier.”
Supt Jackson said there were no significant incidents during the first week of Schoolies and all the arrests were for relatively minor offences.
While Schoolies was once notorious for drunken violence and anti-social behaviour, Supt Jackson said the event had “100 per cent transformed”.
He said it was now a “well-organised and very safe” event and the culture of the school-leavers themselves had changed dramatically.
“Kids are a lot more health and safety conscious and they are looking out for each other,” he said.
Queensland Ambulance Service supervisor said there had also been a major decrease in the number of admissions into the on-site Schoolies emergency treatment centre in Surfers Paradise.
He said almost 479 teens had been treated, with 18 needing to be taken to hospital for mostly minor injuries and ailments.
Mr Payne said when he first started with the Safer Schoolies Response more than a decade ago, it was typical to see “hundreds” of school-leavers treated and many taken to hospital.
He said while most of the treatments this year were for intoxication, the schoolies were “significantly less intoxicated than in previous years”.
“I think the messaging out there about safer activities and reasonable consumption of alcohol is getting through,” he said.
Red Frogs national co-ordinator Andy Gourley gave the Queensland school-leavers “10 out of 10”.
“There’s been a massive change in the trends,” he said.
“A big shout-out to the schoolies, they’ve been so polite and so nice this year - probably the nicest bunch of schoolies I’ve seen.”
Mr Gourley said Red Frogs volunteers had walked about 1000 teen revellers back to their apartments, and handed out about 2200 pancakes and two tonnes of red frog lollies.
Safer Schoolies Response project director Anna Hanson said the 13,000 registered Queensland school-leavers had displayed “consistently good behaviour”.
“They had fun and they stayed safe,” she said.
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