Arrests on New Year's Eve spiked in Western Australia compared to the year before, with police saying they had to deal with a large number of disturbances at residential properties as many people chose — or were forced — to ring in the New Year at home.
COVID-19 event restrictions, including the two-square-metre rule and the need for many celebrations to comply with government-approved COVID plans, meant many events that went ahead were forced to cap numbers far lower than usual.
Acting Commander Tony Flack said while the evening was "in the vast majority a peaceful entry to the new year," arrests were up from the previous year.
"Whilst we had no serious incidents and no deaths, we saw a large increase in the number of disturbances, mainly on residential properties and private homes," he said.
"It would appear that people have chosen to stay at home rather than go out."
Acting Commander Flack said many of those dealt with by police were young people.
"We continue to be plagued by young people and young adults whose whole social being is around alcohol and the violence that goes with alcohol," he said.
"Of course, large groups of young people combined with alcohol leads to police response."
He said those factors meant police attended 88 more disturbances than last year and charged 50 extra people.
'We banked up all our partying': Ambulance callouts rise
WA's paramedics reported a similar increase in callouts, with demand up by around 20 per cent between 1:00am and 4:00am.
St John Ambulance WA medical director Paul Bailey said most of that came from young people who were "partying too hard".
"It was like we banked all our partying up for the year and it all came out last night," he said.
"You put alcohol, celebrations, some people who are tired and crowds together and things happen."
He said while the service was always prepared for a surge in demand on New Year's Eve, Thursday night was even bigger than usual.
"We prepare, we have extra crews on, we know where things are likely to kick off, and last night just got a little big on us," Dr Bailey said.
"Nothing bad happened, we took great care of the community, but it was a tough night for our people."
Major nightspots fairly quiet
Police continued to maintain a heavy presence in nightspots like Northbridge and Fremantle, with additional officers on bike and horseback.
Acting Commander Flack said revellers in those areas were generally well behaved.
"Can I … compliment the licensed owners and managers of licensed premises for the way they managed their premises and their functions during the night?" he said.
"It was very well managed and we had very few problems on licensed premises."
NYE cancelled for recent Victorian arrivals
Celebrations were dampened for thousands of recent arrivals from Victoria though, after Thursday's decision by the WA Government to reintroduce its hard border with the state.
The reclassification of Victoria from "very low risk" to "medium risk" means people coming from Victoria from Friday will not be allowed in, unless they are an exempt traveller.
It also means that anyone who had arrived since December 21 would have to go into self-quarantine until 14 days had passed from when they arrived in WA.
For those travellers, it meant New Year's Eve celebrations were all but cancelled.
"It is really unfortunate, but it is necessary that they stay home. We just cannot afford to take the risk," Acting Premier and Health Minister Roger Cook said yesterday.
"We share the pain of our friends on the east coast.
"But at the same time, we will take the necessary measures in the interest of the people of Western Australia to keep our community safe."
