Christmas Revelers Leave 16 Tons of Trash on Australian Beach

SYDNEY, Australia — Christmas and New Year in Australia typically involve barbecues, beaches and beer.

But a Christmas Day celebration that drew more than 10,000 people has led to a suspension of that tradition on Coogee Beach in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, where officials estimate that revelers left behind more than 16 tons of garbage. The City Council banned alcohol on the beach for the rest of the Australian summer.

“I’m a local, and in all my time here I’ve never seen anything like it,” Tony Waller, president of the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, told Channel 7, adding that the club used four oxygen cylinders and 15 resuscitation masks to treat drunken partygoers.

“By late evening, it got so bad that we let the shark alarm off three times to try to get the swimmers out of the water, we had such grave concerns for them,” Mr. Waller said. “They were all intoxicated.”

Three people were arrested over “antisocial behavior,” according to the police.

There has long been tension between the residents who live near Sydney’s beaches and the tourists, many of them foreign, who hold all-day and all-night parties fueled by alcohol and drugs and leave behind piles of trash that greet early morning joggers and swimmers.

Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Christmas Day, where alcohol had already been prohibited. A raucous party down the shore at Coogee Beach has led to a total ban there, too, for the rest of the summer.CreditDavid Gray/Reuters

“I’ve seen sex on Bondi Beach on Christmas afternoon,” Mark Cotter, president of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, said in an interview, referring to a beach north of Coogee. “People are often off their heads, drunk and sunburned.”

At Bondi Beach, the local council has also banned alcohol consumption. But many residents say that beer, along with cannabis and other drugs, is openly consumed on a grassy area where turntables and D.J.s entertain crowds.

“The grassy knoll at north Bondi is the place to be seen on Saturdays and Sundays as it attracts buff bodies and bikinis,” Zak Mann, a 20-year Bondi resident, said in an interview. “It’s cheaper to drink on the street than in the swanky, upmarket bars.”

The police and rangers employed by local councils have the authority to confiscate unopened alcohol and pour out alcohol being consumed on Bondi Beach, said Tony Kay, who oversees the council for Waverley, a Sydney suburb. The police in Sydney often simply warn those found in possession of up to 15 grams of cannabis leaf, enough for 15 to 25 joints.

The City Council in Randwick said that it had previously restricted alcohol consumption at Coogee Beach and its surrounding parks during certain hours of the day in an effort to stop bad behavior.

“However, the poor and inappropriate behavior of a few on Christmas Day have forced the council to introduce a total alcohol ban for the area for summer,” it said. “The public outrage to the devastation of the parks and beach itself on Christmas Day has been quite phenomenal.”

P.C: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/world/australia/coogee-beach-trash-sydney-christmas.html