THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The people of Australia have developed a reputation for hard drinking and partying and this last Christmas folks around Sydney showed what they can do.

Christmas and New Year in Australia typically involve barbecues, beaches and beer.

But a Christmas Day celebration that drew more than 10,000 people has led to a suspension of that tradition on Coogee Beach in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, where officials estimate that revelers left behind more than 16 tons of garbage. The City Council banned alcohol on the beach for the rest of the Australian summer.

“I’m a local, and in all my time here I’ve never seen anything like it,” Tony Waller, president of the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, told Channel 7, adding that the club used four oxygen cylinders and 15 resuscitation masks to treat drunken partygoers.

“By late evening, it got so bad that we let the shark alarm off three times to try to get the swimmers out of the water, we had such grave concerns for them,” Mr. Waller said. “They were all intoxicated.”

“I’ve seen sex on Bondi Beach on Christmas afternoon,” Mark Cotter, president of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, said in an interview, referring to a beach north of Coogee. “People are often off their heads, drunk and sunburned.”

At Bondi Beach, the local council has also banned alcohol consumption. But many residents say that beer, along with cannabis and other drugs, is openly consumed on a grassy area where turntables and D.J.s entertain crowds.

“The grassy knoll at north Bondi is the place to be seen on Saturdays and Sundays as it attracts buff bodies and bikinis,” Zak Mann, a 20-year Bondi resident, said in an interview. “It’s cheaper to drink on the street than in the swanky, upmarket bars.”

And a Happy New Year to you.