By Margaret Maccoll
Noosa Today photographer Rob Maccoll has been named a finalist in this year’s Queensland Clarion Awards for his photographs of teens out of control on Noosa’s Main Beach during Schoolies Week and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Titled Beach Chaos, Rob’s photos are finalists in the Regional and Community News Photograph category and will be competing for the award against news photographs entered by Townsville Bulletin and Cairns Post.
Schoolies Week 2020 had been formally cancelled by the Queensland Government as a result of coronavirus restrictions and all the usual events on the Gold Coast, as well as the New Year’s Eve celebrations, were cancelled.
As a consequence, thousands of teenagers headed for Main beach.
Both events turned ugly when alcohol-fuelled mobs pushed the limits of police .
On the Friday night of Schoolies, police on horses moved into the thousands on the beach to remove a generator and boom box that was further exciting the crowds.
Schoolies closed in behind the horses, waving their arms and chanting loudly in an attempt to scare the horses, creating an unruly, ugly and dangerous situation.
A similar event occurred on New Year’s Eve when, once again, thousands packed the beach.The combination of alcohol and drugs resulted in the Queensland Ambulance Service establishing a triage unit to deal with a continual stream of people brought in for assistance.
Rob said participants yelled abuse at him several times during the evenings and tried to stop him documenting the proceedings.
Noosa Today was the only media at the events which would otherwise have gone unreported.
Both Noosa Mayor and Noosa Police said these events would be banned in future.
Queensland Clarion Awards are the pre-eminent state-based awards promoting excellence in the media. The winners of the awards will be announced at a cocktail function on 9 October at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
