Gold Coast restaurant owners calls out schoolies for driving customers away

School leavers on the Gold Coast have been called out for rubbish they have left on Gold Coast Streets as well as affecting business.

One Gold Coast restaurateur has gone so far as to blame them for a drop in business, labelling the school leavers “drunken pr**ks”.

Italian restaurant Nicolinis owner Murray Taylor claims schoolies have “completely killed” his business, driving tourists and regular customers away from the Surfers Paradise entertainment precinct.

Taylor claims business has dropped by as much as 80 per cent.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not completely anti-Schoolies but the drunken pr**ks causing chaos up and down Surfers Paradise Boulevard have completely killed us,” Taylor told The Gold Coast Bulletin.

“There’s people spewing on the sidewalk and toolies carrying on and screaming while people are trying to enjoy a nice Italian meal. It’s ridiculous.”

Taylor said his chefs had gone from 200 meals a night to just 18 on Friday and that he asked his daughter and 10 of her friends to make the venue look busy. He then called on his loyal customers to make their way to the restaurant.

“To all our amazingly loyal & fabulous customers – please don’t let Schoolies keep you away as we are in the quiet part of town and we would love to see you tonight,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post.

“Unfortunately, Schoolies has impacted the restaurants here as many people try to avoid the area but we can assure you that it’s business as usual and it’s quite peaceful here.”

Taylor offered a free drink to customers who came in and mentioned the Facebook post.

Even schoolies have called out the bad behaviour.

“You dirty motherf***ers,” one Tik Tokker is heard screaming out as the footage pans across an ugly looking Cavil Avenue.

“Class of 2022 is feral,” another commented.

“I normally say they are just having fun but at least they could have used the bins,” another said.

“So disrespectful to the environment,” one user wrote.

Despite the garbage, Queensland police have been generally happy, with Gold Coast District Acting Chief Superintendent Rhys Wildman saying there were an extra 10,000 school leavers attending.

“So, when you work those numbers out, it just highlights the incredible behaviour that’s being displayed by our school leavers.

“We’ve seen our school leavers displaying a lot of maturity for their young years.

“Normally in previous years, we wouldn’t see school leavers until around midday when they’d start surfacing; driving through the Gold Coast earlier this morning they’re out and about, going to cafes, having breakfast.”

Jonathan Jackson - 23-11-22