Four people have been arrested after two huge, unplanned Christmas parties involving more than 8,000 people, Santa hats and a lot of alcohol in Melbourne and Sydney.
The mayor of Sydney’s Randwick city council condemned some of the behaviour as “unAustralian” after bottles were thrown at police as they broke up a large gathering at Little Bay.
Five thousand people gathered at Melbourne’s St Kilda beach on Monday afternoon and continued drinking past the local council’s 8pm alcohol ban, trashing the foreshore and resulting in two people being arrested for public drunkenness and assault. A 27-year-old man was hit by a tram in the aftermath, a 27-year-old woman was taken to hospital with alcohol poisoning and several others were injured by stepping on broken glass, police said.
Victoria police inspector Jason Kelly said the unplanned event had “escalated” and left an “appalling, really unacceptable” level of rubbish behind for workers from Port Philip council to clean up.
“What really disappoints Victoria police is the level of intoxication that occurred here tonight as evidenced by the level of rubbish left behind,” Kelly said in a beachside interview on Christmas night.
Clean up after Xmas Day revelers leave their rubbish on the foreshore #StKilda #BinIt #dotherightthing @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/zEvbak26TT
— Nicole Garmston (@garmoheraldsun) December 25, 2017
Welcome to the St Kilda Tip, formerly known as the St Kilda Foreshore, after 5000+ trashed it last night. pic.twitter.com/LpeTv5Te8e
— Paul Dowsley (@pauldowsley7) December 25, 2017
Kelly said while the beach was open to everyone, the “level of intoxication” was disappointing.
“Overall, considering the number of people here and that we have dispersed them ... it was a significant response from Victoria police to ensure the local safety of the community here,” he said.
The council instituted a 10-day drinking ban on the beach from Boxing Day.
In the Sydney suburb of Little Bay, revellers complained of being pushed and pepper sprayed by police who arrived to break up a gathering of about 3,000 backpackers.
As the crowd was moved on, two women, one a UK national and the other from Ireland, were arrested after allegedly hitting police officers with bottles. They have since been charged with assaulting police.
“My officers were on the receiving end of some alcohol-fuelled violence and it was dealt with swiftly in order to bring the matter under control,” Superintendent Karen McCarthy told reporters in Randwick on Tuesday.
“The people at the party were intoxicated, they were obviously in a festive mood and the majority of people were compliant with police actions, however, there was a small, isolated incident.”
Footage of the aftermath of the party showed officers attempting to disperse the gathering. Videos from the scene posted online showed dozens of people in Santa hats drinking, singing and dancing to loud music.
One man wearing a panda head and carrying a boxed-wine bladder, or goon bag, holds up his middle finger as police officers approach the booing crowd.
Ol' mate in the panda head, flinging around his goon bag, who flips the bird to the cops as they approach the Little Bay beach party gets a special mention in my yarn. pic.twitter.com/DxfgDx4oOR
— Jamie McKinnell (@jamie86) December 25, 2017
One video showed at least four women being pushed to the ground, including two who landed on the road, as officers doused others with pepper spray.
Stephen Minshaw, who was injured, said police were hitting people with batons as they tried to leave.
“I don’t get why the police needed to use force,” he told the Seven Network. “We’re backpackers, we’re not going to … fight back against them.”
Little Bay: "We're backpackers. So, I don't get why police need to use force to be, like, hit us" - Stephen Minshaw speaking to @Channel7. Three people have been arrested after an out of control beach party spilled onto the streets. #LittleBay #7News pic.twitter.com/98VVt809F6
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) December 25, 2017
He denied the party had got out of hand.
Other social media users responded to the footage by labelling the police response “unnecessarily violent”, “ridiculous” and going “way too far”.
But McCarthy insisted the incident was handled appropriately.
“Police deployed appropriate tactics in order to deal with the alcohol-fuelled violence and bring the matter safely under control,” she said. “The people were in contravention of the alcohol-free zone and we simply took swift action to move the people from the area and get them onto safe transport home.”
Quick action from @nswpolice helped shut down a drunken beach party of 3,000 backpackers yesterday at Little Bay Beach. A big thank you to local residents and Council workers who cleared 40 bags of rubbish incl broken bottles in just a few hours. Info: https://t.co/WNjnwiBdOX pic.twitter.com/vJthUXVU04
— Randwick Council (@RandwickCouncil) December 26, 2017
Randwick mayor Lindsay Shurey praised the police response to the “drunken beach party”.
“The police response shut down the party very quickly and helped prevent any serious accidents or major injuries amongst the highly intoxicated revellers,” Shurey said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I condemn the behaviour of those backpackers who attacked and assaulted police by throwing bottles – this is un-Australian.”
Last week Eastern Beaches police posted a warning on Facebook about alcohol-free zones at all local beaches.
Randwick city council had introduced tighter alcohol restrictions for Christmas, police said, and anyone who was caught risked a maximum fine of $2,200.
