How to spot a schoolie: Go to the bottleshop before 10am

YOU can't miss them. They're lounging around the grass like baby seals: OPINION

File photo of Schoolies at Byron Bay. Picture: Patrick Gorbunovs

HOW do you spot a schoolie in Byron Bay?

They are the only people I know who bring their own shopping trolley to the supermarket.

Come to think of it, shopping trolleys seem to be a major form of transport for schoolies.

They are also the only people in the bottleshop before 10am.

They're also conspicuous because they move in such big groups, usually, but not always, with new wheelie bags in tow.

As a breed, they are also prone to occupy footpaths as if they had land rights.

Speaking of prone, there's a lot of 'lounging around' time for schoolies.

If they are not sunbaking, they are laying about on grass verges everywhere like baby seals waiting for their mums to feed them.

Almost uniformly they have sick looks splashed on their faces.

Not necessarily sick from excessive alcoholic consumption but sick about their HSC marks/future etc etc.

And when you think about it, after schoolies they are never going to be the same.

That pack mentality will be gone and they will join this big bad world of ours all on their own.

As a rite of passage it's a strange and unusual sight to behold.