Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Rottnest Island - hell on Earth this week?

This week is a terrible time to go to Rottnest Island for a family holiday - its so called 'Leavers' Week' when thousands of cashed up teenage children of the nuveaux riche are packed of to the resort to let it all hang out with drugs, alcohol, fights and loud rock 'n roll.

The extra cops do their best to control the situation. Already teenagers have been sent back to the mainland for so called unruly behaviour and stealing. Nevertheless, when the week is over, the police will say that apart from a few troublemakers, everyone was relatively well behaved. It's a political thing to go soft.

But there will be plenty of unofficial horror stories related by unsuspecting 'normal' people who made the miserable mistake of booking into Rotto for the week. It's the same every year. They'll be saying, "Never again!"

Many teenagers seem to be given the keys to the family stink-boat for this traditional time of juvenile debauchery. The bays of the island are filled with permanent moorings which are the exclusive territory of the wealthiest citizens in the state.

Their stink-boats can range from quite small vessels of four or five metres to real whoppers costing millions. There was some footage last night of one at the island which looked like some doting daddy's prawn trawler. There were maybe 50 screaming, teenagers swarming over it - and it appeared to have a slight list to one side.

The private flotilla apparently facilitates the unchecked movement of large qualities of alcohol to the island precinct. As long as it doesn't go ashore, the individuals on the boats can pretty well behave as they wish. Apparently much of this poor behaviour is encouraged by parents in the belief it should be forgiven because their little darlings have worked so hard at school all year.

Less wealthy teenagers arriving by regular ferry expect to have their bags searched by police as they step ashore, and if the kids are under age any booze will be confiscated. We saw some images of that happening last night, but those involved seemed to regard the confiscations as a bit of a joke. It would only be a minor setback in their plans to 'have a good time.' There'll be plenty of suppliers on the island. Furthermore, the searches were only random.

Last Friday night there was another not-all-that unusual incident on Rottnest, not with teenage schoolies, but with drunken members of an adult rugby team having a bonding session.</i> Early press reports said that other members of the public alleged that members of the team had caught some of the islands small kangaroo-like quokkas by the tail and were swinging them in a hammer-throw. A brief investigation took place. They apparently admitted they'd interfered with the animals, but denied they'd actually thrown them. Four team members were fined a paltry hundred dollars each for interfering with the wildlife.

Its much worse at Dunsborough, which is further south along our coast. This is the other notorious destination for schoolies, and apparently toolies who are older and prey upon the naive schoolies in various nefarious ways. As well as drunkenness, there have been drug overdoses and at least 28 arrests in the past few days. It's likely to get much worse at Dunsborough and Rottnest Island before the week is out.

© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.

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