No plan for NQ schoolies
SCHOOL leavers are expected to descend on one of North Queensland’s prime holiday destinations, but with no official events, it’s been difficult for Whitsunday police and businesses to plan.
Airlie is usually teeming with teens at the end of the school year, but this year the organised events were canned due to coronavirus.
But with restrictions easing across Queensland, many school leavers are opting to go away after the pandemic put a pin in a number of end-of-year celebrations.
Senior Sergeant Jason Colley said it had been difficult to plan for schoolies this year because there was no official event or registrations.
“Basically, we’re going to determine what sort of response we have as people arrive,” the Whitsunday Police officer-in-charge said.
“If there are heaps of people attending we will draw resources from other locations to make sure people are safe.”
Sen-sgt Colley said in previous years, there had been between 1000-1500 people heading to the Whitsundays for schoolies with police in place to assist if anything goes wrong.
He warned people needed to be careful because an incident at schoolies could affect them for their whole lives.
“We don’t want them getting into serious trouble, or something that may result in someone going to
court … (or something that could) even result in serious injury,” SenSgt Colley said.
While the seaside town is unsure how many people will turn up for end-of-year shenanigans, tourism operators Redcat Adventures remained hopeful.
“Our bookings are quite solid but I’m not sure if they’re coming from
schools or if it’s (other) people coming here,” owner Julie Telford said.
“We’ve just got to keep going, be positive and optimistic and hopefully we do get a bit of a rush next week.”
Whitsunday Chamber of Commerce president Allan Milostic said accommodation businesses were not necessarily reporting an in
crease in bookings, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more people heading for Airlie Beach.
He said schoolies had a good, long-term visitation effect for the holiday destination.
While the school leavers weren’t eating at restaurants, they were often coming back later in life as adults and with families.