{"id":471761,"date":"2025-12-26T00:49:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T00:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/471761\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T00:49:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T00:49:22","slug":"revellers-swarm-coogee-beach-for-christmas-day-celebrations-after-bronte-beach-off-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/471761\/","title":{"rendered":"Revellers swarm Coogee Beach for Christmas Day celebrations after Bronte Beach off-limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

As thousands of revellers spend Boxing Day recovering, council staff worked through the night to remove 20 tonnes of rubbish following a wild pop-up Christmas Day dance party at Coogee Beach.<\/p>\n

Otherwise known as “Orphans Christmas” or “Backpacker Christmas”, the beach reserve became the scene of DJ tents and a sea of Santa hats and red swimwear.<\/p>\n

\"Scattered<\/p>\n

Clean-up began at Coogee Beach on Thursday evening. (Supplied: Randwick City Council Facebook)<\/p>\n

NSW Police said, despite the crowd numbers, everything ran smoothly with no arrests or fines.<\/p>\n

Randwick City Council said workers began a clean-up of the area about 7pm last night and by Friday morning had removed more than four truck loads of rubbish.<\/p>\n

“I would like to commend all of our rangers, lifeguards and waste and cleansing staff for the amazing work they’ve done,” said Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker.<\/p>\n

“I would also like to thank Waverley Council who sent extra crews from nearby Bronte Beach to give us a hand.<\/p>\n

\"Coogee<\/p>\n

Despite the crowd numbers, NSW Police says there are no arrests or fines. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

Mr Parker said while council was prepared for large crowds, he was disappointed some chose to litter heavily and urinate in public.<\/p>\n

Randwick City Council went to extra lengths to communicate that beaches and nearby parks were alcohol-free zones, including extra signage targeting backpacker hostels.<\/p>\n

\"Coogee<\/p>\n

Alcohol and garbage strewn across the beachside park. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

\"Sidewalk<\/p>\n

Litter in the aftermath of a massive ‘Orphans Christmas’ party. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Council had prepared for large crowds as a precaution [at Coogie Beach], despite indications the gathering had been planned for Bronte Beach, deploying extra staff, bins and rubbish bags, and working closely with NSW Police,” Mr Parker said<\/p>\n

Waverley Council warned people against celebrations at Bronte Beach, with half of the park cordoned off due to construction works at Bronte Surf Life Saving Club.<\/p>\n

In June this year, it allocated an extra $220,000 on managing waste<\/a>, security and toilets on Christmas Day after more than 15,000 people gathered at Bronte for celebrations in 2024.<\/p>\n

Anti-social behaviour, excessive noise and a mammoth mess at last year’s gathering prompted Waverley Council to make the move.<\/p>\n

Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh said council implemented a comprehensive strategic communications campaign to deter large crowds this year.<\/p>\n

“Just in case, knowing we can’t ban people from public places and always keen to be prepared, Council devised a multi-pronged management plan to help cope with crowds, bad behaviour, traffic, noise and the clean-up task,” Mr Nemesh said.<\/p>\n

“But our warnings were heard, and it was a peaceful day at Bronte. I am pleased we did not see a repeat of the chaotic scenes of 2024, and I am sure locals are relieved too.”<\/p>\n

Locals return to help<\/p>\n

Naoki, who lives nearby, arrived at Coogee’s beachside reserve this morning to help with the clean-up.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“I saw such a chaotic situation here yesterday,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“I pick up glasses because it’s important for dogs, cats and children to walk around here.”<\/p>\n

Local John said one thing the suburb did well was put on a party.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve got to go somewhere.<\/p>\n

“We’re not stuck up like Bronte. We like having the young kids here. We saw all the footage last night and we thought it was great.”<\/p>\n

Bruce seemed unbothered about the events that took place the night before as he played soccer on the patch of grass with his young children.<\/p>\n

“I guess everyone in their 20s wanted to have some fun,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think they’re displaced from the other beaches”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As thousands of revellers spend Boxing Day recovering, council staff worked through the night to remove 20 tonnes…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":471762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,214040,30654,203672,214039,214038,2650,50,10669,13048],"class_list":{"0":"post-471761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bronte-beach","10":"tag-celebrations","11":"tag-christmas-day","12":"tag-coogee-beach","13":"tag-festivities","14":"tag-local-government","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-party","17":"tag-sydney"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115783124483651233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}