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Think of schoolies, hens, bucks, any let-your-hair down party weekend and one place springs to mind. The Gold Coast.
Annually its beachside suburb of Surfer’s Paradise is overrun with teens celebrating the end of school and all year round it’s flooded with party goers flocking to its magical streets full of bars and clubs.
But the city has had enough. New plans to deal with the out-of-hand revellers mean trying to create a permanent ‘party zone’ so visitors are restricted to one area. It will see them only being able to rent ‘party houses’ in a small block of streets (from Hamilton Avenue to View Avenue and stopping at the Nerang river).
Not everyone is happy about the new proposals though. Some local MPs fear far from condensing the problem it will make it worse.
‘This sort of planning will ensure you’re going to have a kind of Schoolies 24-hours a day, 365-days a year,’ Queensland state MP John-Paul Langbroek told news.com.au. He added, ‘schoolies is already two weeks of hell so as a local member there’s no way I can say I’m just going to let this go and let it be okay.’
The new ‘party house’ plan would force approved party house operators to draw up a crowd management plan, employ a bouncer, keep a log of guests and have a 24-hour hotline for any complaints.
The argument is that families living in the suburbs will be protected from all the revelry as it will happen in the designated area but Mr Langbroek is worried it’ll just give party goers more freedom, making them feel they can do whatever they like.
The proposal specifically includes approval for ‘adult entertainment’, as long as it can’t be seen or heard by neighbours – this could include strippers and make allowances for swingers’ parties.
Mr Langbroek, who says he will fight the changes, fears the plans could turn areas of his city turned into some lawless, wild west.
‘[We don’t want to turn into] places like Spain’s Mallorca where you go overseas and everyone is like ‘My god, there’s no adults here, we can just do whatever we want,’’
‘There are adults here and there are people that live here and we need to respect the local laws and the community,’ he says.
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