Thousands of teenagers celebrating Schoolies on the Gold Coast are as "safe as they can be", Queensland's police minister says, as the marathon of parties and excessive drinking gets underway.
But there have been some injuries during the first weekend of festivities at Surfers Paradise.
Gold Coast Safety Response was visited by almost 10,000 school leavers picking up a wristband for events on Saturday, the first day of celebrations.
Queensland Ambulance Service said 16 patients have been assessed so far at the Emergency Treatment Centre, with one person taken to hospital.
"There is no safer place for our young people to be in Surfers Paradise tonight," Police Minister Dan Purdie told the media while at the celebrations on Saturday evening.
"Hundreds of volunteers, hundreds of police, and the Beasley Foundation and the Red Frogs [are] ensuring our school leavers have the safest and best time they possibly can here."
He was joined by Brett and Belinda Beasley, the parents of Jack Beasley who was fatally stabbed by a group of youths during a night out with friends in Surfers Paradise in 2019.
"It's good to find no weapons, it's also good to keep our school leavers safe and our community safe," Mr Beasley said.
"At the end of the day, we just want our kids to come home safe and our police officers to also come home safe at the end of the night."
The pair run the anti-youth violence organisation, Beasley Foundation which took part in a "wanding" operation on Saturday, consisting of scans to detect and remove dangerous weapons from public spaces.
School leavers will also flock to the Sunshine Coast, Airlie Beach and Byron Bay during the nationwide celebrations, which run until December 1.
The teenagers are supported by emergency services and charity volunteer group Red Frogs, which urged school leavers to never leave their friends behind, leave a drink unattended or accept drinks from others.
Pill testing will go ahead at the Gold Coast event after the Liberal National government backtracked on plans to dump the service.
