While some schoolies arrive by bus, others arrive by plane. And many arrive by car.
Recent school leavers Adam Hegedns and Alexi Provano arrived at Byron Bay by foot.
They left their school, Waverly College, and walked around 800km from Bondi to Byron to raise funds for Schoolies for Schooling, which aims to build a school for one of Australia’s closest neighbours, Timor-Leste.
The 21-day Bondi to Byron walk raised $17,050 of their $18,000 target.
Adam said, ‘We hope others will follow in our wake in subsequent years, not only to help bring the reality of education to Timor-Leste.
‘We also wanted to show another, less stigmatised side to schoolies celebrations.’
The pair were inspired after a school visit to the Ralico Craic region, where they found young children desperate for an education.
The boys were welcomed to town last week with a pool party and seafood barbecue at Byron’s pool.
Further support can be offered at www.gofundme.com/schooliesforschool.
Schoolies well behaved: police
Meanwhile, staff from the NSW Public Order and Riot Squad and mounted officers were again part of the police contingent in Byron Bay over the weekend for the town’s annual schoolies weekend.
Chief inspector Michael Dempsey from the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command said that this type of staffing was ‘usual for any big event and not out of the ordinary’.
Schoolies, which this year runs from November 19 to December 10 across three states, saw last weekend as the end date for Queensland and the start date for NSW and Victoria, a time which traditionally sees youth numbers swell to epic proportions.
Inspector Dempsey the police had a fairly quiet time in Byron.
‘There were a lot of people, but everybody was pretty well behaved’, he said.
‘There were only a few incidents and they were of a minor nature.’
Anyone wanting more info and safety tips can visit the schoolies website at www.schoolies.com.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
