Schoolies alcohol-fuelled violence drives up assaults in Byron Bay

DOCTOR warns binge drinking teens are making popular holiday town lose its sophistication and become dangerous.

Schoolies revellers at Main Beach Park in Byron Bay last year. Picture: Brad Hunter

AS Schoolies descend upon Byron Bay, a local medical doctor is warning that binge drinking in the New South Wales holiday town is destroying young lives and driving other tourists away.

Local emergency specialist Dr Blake Eddington said there is a spike in assaults in Byron Bay over the summer months when schoolies and other holiday-makers flock to the town and get drunk.

Byron Bay's main beach. Picture: Adam Taylor

"We do get probably a two-to-three fold increase in alcohol related assaults over this period," he said.

"I can say from a hospital point of view, we are catering to a young, intoxicated crowd and it keeps up from 11.30pm until 3am.

"It's getting busier and busier and more alcohol related," Dr Eddington, who has 15 years experience in emergency medicine, said.

Dr Eddington is the spokesman for Last Drinks at 12, a lobby group that is calling for the abolition of the town's voluntary liquor accord and a midnight curfew on pub trading.

According to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics figures, more than 70 per cent of 327 non-domestic violence related assaults that occurred in Byron Bay in the year to March 2013 were alcohol related.

Dr Eddington blamed the cheap price of many forms of alcohol and prevalent advertising for encouraging binge drinking, particularly among the young.

"The kids in Byron Bay can come here and buy alcohol cheaper than water," he said.

While the town remained a picturesque place to have a drink, booze-filled violence was now turning some tourists off the town, he said.

"After 10pm, forget Byron Bay," Dr Eddington said.

"It's lost its sophistication, it's lost its vibrancy, it's become a little dangerous on the street.

"I think it's had a detrimental effect," he said.

Neither Byron United - the town's chamber of commerce - or the Byron Shire Council were available for comment on the impact alcohol-fuelled violence is having on tourism in the town.