“People are more just, like, they don’t want to come and get smashed every night. They just want to go and do something more chilled, hang out with their friends.”
It’s a comment to 7NEWS by one school leaver that sums up the apparent trend in attitudes of revellers at annual Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast over the past 15 years.
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Halfway through this year’s week-long event, there have been fewer alcohol-related incidents and fewer attendees than previous years.
Organisers expected about 20,000 people to descend on Surfers Paradise. Only 14,000 have showed up. Ten people have been arrested so far — a quarter of the number this time last year.
“It’s a really, really good vibe this year,” Gold Coast Superintendent Peter Miles said on Wednesday.
Statistics highlight a decline in police incidents, with the number of arrests this year on track to fall well short of those made 10 years ago.
In 2013, 106 Schoolies were arrested during the course of the week, along with 248 non-Schoolies people. Fifteen years ago, in 2008, 198 Schoolies were arrested.
“It’s the culmination in a long trend. We’ve really seen teenagers’ drinking decline over past 15 years in Australia,” Curtin University National Drug Research Institute’s Michael Livingstone told 7NEWS.com.au.
“Obviously Schoolies, there’s always going to be some chaos and intoxication. But I think the general shift has been less drinking among those age groups.
“It makes sense that we’d see less harm at this point at Schoolies, when intoxication’s not the main social activity for 17-year-olds in the way it was 15 years ago.”
Destinations other than Surfers Paradise have also emerged and grown in popularity, including Airlie Beach and Byron Bay, as well as overseas destinations such as Fiji and Bali.
One school leaver at Airlie Beach told 7NEWS the Gold Coast celebrations are “too crazy”.
“We just wanted somewhere to get out of Sydney. Coming up here, it’s a lot more chilled. Everyone’s so friendly,” he said.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate indicated on Tuesday the council may have to consider new events in the main Schoolies hub if celebrations continue to decline.
Livingstone said youngsters are choosing a “more diverse array of activities” to celebrate the end of their schooling.
“You talk to 17-year-olds about their recreation, and there’s a much more diverse range of things people are doing I think than there were in the 1990s and early 2000s, when drinking really was central to being a late teenager,” he said.
“Inevitably, there will be people who want to celebrate by various means of intoxication, but we do think the diversity around the practices at Schoolies will continue to grow.
“People might take on different ways of celebrating that transition from school to life.”
So why are young people turning away from alcohol? The answer isn’t entirely clear, according to Livingstone.
But the alcohol policy expert believes “anxiety about the future” — as well as public health campaigns — could be playing a part.
“It seems to be a shift in behaviour more broadly among young people towards less risk-taking, a more cautious approach to growing up,” Livingstone said.
‘The idea that making a mistake when you’re 17 will ruin your whole future — the idea that you’ve got to be very deliberate in your choices — seems to be very common in younger people now in a way that was not so common in previous generations.”
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