EDITORIAL: Sydney’s NYE alcohol experiment seems to have worked

Well over a million people lining Sydney’s harbour on New Year’s Eve faced unprecedented alcohol control measures, from fines of $2,200 to bag searches at controlled entry points. George Street became a car and alcohol-free zone from Town Hall to the Quay.

Beforehand, security walls around Circular Quay, The Domain and Botanic Gardens evoked images of the dark days of APEC.

But it seems to have worked. The ‘drunken rats’ as Premier Nathan Rees called them were not much in evidence around the city until much later in the night, after the mums and dads had gone home.

Police from The Rocks, City Central and Surry Hills all agreed that the evening was less troublesome than in previous years, citing High Visibility Policing, controlled areas along the foreshore and the extended Alcohol-Free Zones which enabled ‘a number of actions in relation to removing alcohol’ according to Inspector Lee at City Central. Anyone caught with an open container of alcohol had it poured out on the spot.

BYO alcohol and glass were excluded from some areas where alcohol was offered for sale. Other places such as Bicentennial Park in Glebe and Pyrmont Point Park allowed BYO but none was for sale.

Over 6,000 people watched the spectacular from Garden Island, a ticketed event organised by the Navy. It too was BYO with no alcohol for sale and as the night progressed the advantages of that model became apparent.

People had made their decisions about how much to drink beforehand, presumably while sober, and were also limited by how much they could carry. As midnight approached a few drinkers scouted the food booths for more alcohol, to no avail.

Meanwhile police wandered up and down the concrete concourse with very little to do except enjoy the show from one of the city’s best vantage points, looking straight down the harbour at the Bridge framed by the CBD towers of the city and North Sydney.

But the apparent success on NYE does not mean other alcohol control measures will work. NYE enjoys the advantage of controlled events with a defined start and finish. Out in the real world where people begin and end their nights out at vastly different times, it’s hard to see how a 2am lockout at a mere 50 pubs in NSW is going to do much except displace the problems.

Pic caption.

The happy, peaceable crowd at Garden Island had a good time while limited to BYO alcohol.