A frosty Christmas beer on Sydney’s Bondi Beach has long been a cherished rite of passage for sweltering backpackers more used to spending the festive season in the chilly northern hemisphere winter.
But authorities at the tourist icon have slapped a booze ban on the thousands of young visitors, most of them British and Irish, who descend for an impromptu beach party on Christmas Day.
Waverley Council, which administers a number of Sydney beaches including Bondi, said the move was prompted by safety concerns.
A spokesperson said lifeguards had to rescue more than 100 drink-fuelled revellers from the surf last Christmas Day and the council wanted to avert a tragedy.
An alcohol ban has nominally been in place for a number of years at Bondi but authorities have turned a blind eye to tourists carting beer-laden drinks coolers, or ”eskies”, onto the sand.
The council said this Christmas would be different with police and security guards patrolling the beach and surrounding parks, handing out on-the-spot fines and confiscating contraband alcohol.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph described the move as ”the latest attempt to kill fun in Sydney”.
Backpackers accused the council of trying to increase revenue by forcing beachgoers wanting a drink into a Christmas Day function it runs at a surfside pavilion, where patrons must pay a AU$30 ($23) entry fee and face long queues to buy beer at pub prices.
”It’s ridiculous, making them go somewhere where it’s all about money,” youth hostel manager Cassandra Mezups said. ”It’s not going to stop them.”
Paul Hansford, the editor of backpacker’s magazine TNT, said thousands of tourists performed the beach pilgrimage for their first southern hemisphere Christmas.
”It’s just going to put a real dampener on the day because coming over to Australia for Christmas is a real rite of passage, it’s part of what they come to Australia for,” he said.
But he admitted surf and alcohol were a dangerous mix.
”I don’t think backpackers are informed enough about the dangerous nature of drinking and jumping in the surf. They think they’re safe like at the beaches in England,” he said. – Sapa-AFP