Original Article By: News.com.au | From: ABC (NT) | November 28th, 2011 | 10:12AM
HSC students dream of it and their parents dread it in equal measure, but it was a case of schoolies gone mild this weekend.
Police were impressed with the generally good behaviour of thousands of NSW and Victorian school leavers as they opened up a week of partying in Byron Bay, on the NSW north coast.
Since Friday, just two people have been arrested for drug possession and 21 bags of cask wine confiscated, as more than 5000 schoolies celebrate the end of high school.
A police spokesman said it was not clear weather those arrested were part of the schoolies celebrations.
Across Friday and Saturday nights The Daily Telegraph witnessed just one scuffle and one other schoolie who needed assistance from a paramedic for allegedly over indulging, with the overwhelming majority of teenagers partying in good spirits.
Compared to the average weekend night in Kings Cross it was a regular tea party and hardly the stuff of parent’s nightmares.
Melbourne school leaver Olivia Moore and her friends spent time at several bars before heading down to the dance party and on to a friend’s house to jump in the pool.
“There were no dramas and everyone seemed to have a good time,” she said.
Meanwhile, homeward bound Queendland schoolies have also been praised, with police calling revellers from the class of 2011 the best behaved in more than a decade.
The annual Queensland schoolies party officially ended on Saturday and Superintendent Paul Ziebarth said arrests almost halved from 500 in 2006 to only about 300 this year.
“That’s a massive drop in disorder and also reflects in my view the drop in overall intoxication levels which we’ve seen,” he said.
More school leavers from southern states checked in to the Gold Coast over the weekend and Supt Ziebarth said the vibe so far had been more mellow with less violence on the streets.
He put that down to teens and volunteer support agencies working together and the success of education programs in schools.