Eerie Sydney problem: ‘D*ckheads and hooligans’
FEMALE revellers have dumped Kings Cross saying the eerily quiet streets have turned them off Sydney’s former party precinct. But one woman says “all the d***kheads and macho, aggressive hooligans” have followed them to Newtown.
NSW
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FEMALE revellers have swapped Kings Cross for bustling Newtown saying the eerily quiet streets have turned them off Sydney’s former party precinct.
With thousands of night-time partygoers continuing to decamp from The Cross following the 2014 lockout and last drinks laws, the ghost town is continuing to put people off partying in the 1340 zone.
“It doesn’t feel safe anymore, it used to be about the crowds and the buzz, there were security officers and police everywhere, but now there’s no one about, I wouldn’t touch it now with a bargepole, the lockout laws have killed it,” said Marissa Girardi, 22, who lives in Burwood.
“The problem is all the d*ckheads and macho, aggressive hooligans that used to party in the Cross now come to Newtown and make trouble.
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“I’m a lesbian and have been coming here since I was 18, Newtown is where we come to feel safe, but now the people from the west come here to party and think it’s the new Kings Cross and stare and glare and make remarks and you get grilled about being gay,” said the childcare worker.
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Jess Kay, 25, a retail store manager from Lewisham, said she has not been to Kings Cross in three years.
“Newtown has so many bars and pubs and you can stay out late but it now feels like a village where small-minded people come in to stare at the gay community,” she said.
“The nice feel of Newtown has gone but I still prefer it to Kings Cross. Gambling has gone up because as we’re all being herded to the Casino and I once spent my entire week’s wages in a night on roulette in there.”
Alex Kent, a 27-year-old student from Cromwell Park, said the party hub has always been the inner west for students and more so post lockouts with people flooding to Newtown, Petersham and Marrickville.
“We all come to the Marlborough on a Friday night, it’s great fun and cheap. There are too many rules and costs are too high in Kings Cross.
“There are too many dickheads over there now. If you go to the Cross to drink and want to step outside for a smoke at 1.45am and go back in to join your friends, you can’t — you’re locked out. What a joke.”
Newtown’s The Bank: Caitlin McCarthy, 22, from Cronulla drinks with her pals Brittany Johnston, 22, from Hornsby and Liz Andersen, 26, from Forest Lodge.
“When places like Hugos, Soho and others closed, I stopped going as it stopped being fun,” said Caitlin.
“There’s no live music, it’s lost its culture, the only place worth going to is the World Bar but there’s nowhere to go after whereas in Newtown it’s all around you,” said Brittany.
“There’s nowhere in Kings Cross to end up, we’re young, we want to stay out late, the lockouts are ridiculous, they’ve killed the fun in the Cross,” said Liz.
“It’s eerie now in The Cross, there are no police, no people, the safety in numbers thing has gone, it feels more dangerous than it was before there were fights there.”
Caity Brown, 20, a banker from Ryde, Tylah Brown, 18, from Parramatta and Natalie West, 18, from Parramatta, filed out of the casino at 4am on a Saturday days ago.
“Ill easily blow $300 a night gambling and drinking at the Casino- it’s what we do in there.
“It’s where the young people go, we no longer go to Kings Cross as you can’t go on to 4am or 5am if you want. It’s dead there,” said Caity.
Tylar said: “They let you in and you don’t have to queue for ages to show your ID and feel like you’re going through immigration to get into a nightclub.
“There are only two clubs in Parramatta — the Albion and PJ Gallagher but they close at 4am so we come here. What’s the point of Kings Cross, there’s only one nightclub.”