A Sydney council says it will take action after thousands of partygoers littered a popular beach. Around 15,000 people, mostly tourists, gathered at Bronte Beach yesterday to celebrate Christmas, leaving behind a significant amount of waste. Victoria Pengilley reports.
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00:00Well, there's lots of people out here at Bronte Beach and Bronte Park enjoying what is a beautiful
00:08day.
00:09Lots of people having barbecues and playing sport, and the area looks pristine.
00:13But it was a very different story yesterday.
00:16Around 15,000 people descended upon the beach and park, most of them tourists, to celebrate
00:22Christmas in what they called an Orphan's Christmas.
00:25This area here was so packed, it looked like a sea of red and white.
00:31Despite the council setting up an extra 250 bins and having volunteers and rangers in
00:37place, the beach and park were left a mess yesterday afternoon.
00:42There were empty wine bottles, beer bottles, rubbish, and just general mess left behind.
00:48This area is actually not a designated drinking zone, but the sheer mass of people was simply
00:53too much for the local council to enforce the rules.
00:56It was a similar picture last year as well.
00:59This beach was also trashed by tourists after thousands of people descended upon the area.
01:05And local residents are feeling frustrated and like the council hasn't done enough to
01:09prevent this situation happening again.
01:12Here's what one local resident had to say.
01:14You couldn't walk through the park.
01:17Once upon a time it used to be a family, picnics, with multi-culture, you'd walk around
01:24and it was every nation, it was incredible.
01:27And respectful, and they'd clean up, but the last two years, and now third year, it's just
01:34got out of hand.
01:36The council says volunteers and residents cleaned up yesterday and this morning and
01:40they've acknowledged residents' concerns and frustrations and say they'll be making changes
01:45so this doesn't happen again.
01:47Here's what a local councillor had to say.
01:49We put measures in place this year and we definitely saw an improvement in crowd management
01:54and a quicker turnaround in the cleanup, but we definitely need to look at all options
01:58to make sure that this doesn't happen again next year.
02:00Now the council is urging backpackers to pick up after themselves and to be respectful of
02:06Sydney beaches.