Outraged mayor reveals huge changes to Sydney’s ‘Orphan’s Christmas’ at Bronte Beach after thousands of revellers trashed the area
Radical crowd control and anti-litter measures are being considered after a popular city beach was again vandalized by Christmas revelers.
Sydney’s Waverley Council may be forced to introduce ticketed and glass bans after an estimated 15,000 Christmas Day revelers, many of them backpackers or other tourists, left Bronte Beach strewn with rubbish like an eyesore.
This was despite the council providing hundreds of extra bins and assigning a special rubbish truck to service the site on Wednesday in a vain attempt to prevent a repeat of what had happened in previous years.
Newly elected mayor of Waverley, William Nemesh, said big changes are needed, including a ticketing system to limit the crowds coming to the beach for the Christmas party – which is called ‘Orphan’s Christmas’.
A ban on glass items was also “absolutely feasible and absolutely up for consideration,” he said, referring to broken bottles and containers covering much of the beach area.
“Changes will certainly be needed because fundamentally the lack of respect for our parks and our residents and community has been quite appalling,” Mr Nemesh told the newspaper. Daily Telegraph.
Bronte Surf Club employee Brooke Hannam was still cleaning the area at 10 a.m. Thursday, along with her children Archie, Patrick and Chloe.
She said while public spaces should be enjoyed, what happened at Christmas was unacceptable.
About 15,000 people turned out at Sydney’s Bronte Beach on Christmas Day, but locals said they mostly knew to ‘stay away’
One of Sydney’s most iconic eastern beaches was once again vandalized by thousands of revelers on Christmas Day (pictured: just some of the rubbish left behind this year)
‘It’s just a shame that people don’t clean up after themselves. If you come to enjoy the beach, enjoy it, but be respectful,” Ms. Hannam said.
“Our life savers… they give up their time taking care of people in the water who don’t necessarily know how to swim. And if you throw alcohol into the mix, it really becomes a dangerous place.”
Randwick resident Nicole Toigo said she didn’t think crowd restrictions or glass bans would work, but she did call for greater security to stop dangerous behaviour.
Mr Nemesh has called on the NSW Minns Labor Government to take some of the burden off local taxpayers.
As well as funding the clean-up, Waverly is also paying NSW Police to deploy additional staff to the site.
Spirits were high among visitors at Bronte Beach, although it is unclear how many stayed behind to help with the clean-up
Many of the revelers partying on Sydney’s beaches on Christmas Day were backpackers and other tourists
Newly elected Waverley Council Mayor William Nemesh said radical action should be considered to stop the annual shame
“The state government needs to get more involved, rather than shifting a lot of these hidden costs onto the council for us to manage. They must come to the party,” Mr. Nemesh said.
“We shouldn’t have to bear the costs of crowd control the way we have.”
However, the charges enforced by the Minns government were a matter for Waverley Council.
“Waverley City Council collects significant revenue from area beaches, including millions a year in parking revenue,” a NSW Government spokesperson said.
The council previously explored making the Christmas Day celebration a ticketed event, but abandoned the idea due to community concerns that it could also restrict access for locals.
Because the beach area was so large and had multiple access points, a ticketing system was also considered expensive and difficult to implement.