Tara did not expect to have to get up so early and wait so long, and hoped the celebrations would be worth the effort.
Acting Superintendent Community Engagement Division, Mark Fleskens, said part of the delay on Sunday was due to IT issues compounded by the volume of almost 5400 leavers to be processed.
Superintendent Fleskens said his staff in Busselton reported people were being processed at a faster rate, with an average wait time of an hour.
Despite the delays, he acknowledged the “really positive nature” of the young people in the queues who were meeting new people and making the most of a frustrating situation.
The capacity of 10,000 graduates for official Leavers’ celebrations in the South West was reached about 11am on Monday, with registrations now closed.
“2021 is definitely the largest leavers we’ve had in the history of leavers,” Superintendent Fleskens said.
Joe, a parent of a school leaver, told 6PR’s Gareth Parker the wait time was “ridiculous”, with his daughter having waited in the Busselton line since 4am on Monday.
“She just sent me a photo … and there must be a thousand kids,” he said.
“They don’t open the wristband place until 9am.
“Why aren’t you distributing these things so these kids can go out and do stuff, instead of sucking up half the day for nothing?”
South West District Office Inspector Martin Voyez said now registrations had closed it was expected there would be unofficial gatherings.
“If the party they had at my hotel I’m staying at is anything to go by, they’ll be orderly, enjoy themselves and get to bed tonight at a more reasonable time I hope,” he said.
It is the first time in Leavers’ history graduates have been required to be vaccinated to attend official celebrations, and Inspector Voyez said he was anticipating anti-mandate protests.
“Any protest, and we’ve seen a few in our district in recent days, will be properly policed,” he said.
“Our leavers and other community members will properly protected if necessary.”
City of Busselton Mayor Grant Henley said he had never seen so many 17 and 18-year-olds up at 6am.
“Unfortunately quite a fair bit of [today] will be standing in a queue several hundred metres long of young people,” he said.
“There weren’t a lot of car parks left at 6am when I got down here … and a lot of people are still getting dropped off and jumping on the end of the queue.”
Mr Henley said he would raise the frustrations with organisers to see what could be done so leavers could be processed more efficiently.
“I have volunteered on one of these booths in previous years and if we do need to put out a shout-out for additional volunteers to come and help, perhaps we can do it as a community and help these kids enjoy their Leavers week and not make them spend hours queuing up,” he said.
WA school leavers wait hours for wristbands to official South West celebrations
Source: Philippines Alive
