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schoolies


End of secondary schooling celebrations: Are you going to schoolies?

Editor's comments: Is this term used throughout Australia?


Contributor's comments: The week following the end of year 12 in which students go on a holiday with friends to celebrate. Also used commonly in Brisbane.

Contributor's comments: The word "schoolies" is widely used throughout Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast (obviously).

Contributor's comments: This is used throughout Melbourne too.

Contributor's comments: This term is also used in Brisbane (& on the Gold Coast).

Contributor's comments: I think you had better add Qld to this regionalism as the Gold Coast is after all the home of "schoolies week".

Contributor's comments: [Sydney informant] I have heard this word as an alternative to "school leaver". That is, the people, not the events.

Contributor's comments: We used schoolies in Central North NSW, and it's definitely in broad use in Qld.

Contributor's comments: [Adelaide informant] We definitely use this term when referring to travelling to Victor Harbor for our end of year celebrations.

Contributor's comments: I spent all my school life in Sydney, where I did my H.S.C. Never heard the term "schoolies" used till I moved to Brisbane years later.

Contributor's comments: In Sydney in the 60s this meant a young woman (usually attractive) who was still at school (ie. under the age of consent as most girls did not go past Inter). As in "He's looking for trouble - always messing with schoolies".

Contributor's comments: This term was not used 20 years ago in my Adelaide school.

Contributor's comments: As 'Schoolies' on the Gold Coast (late 80's), most kids went away to Byron Bay and surrounds because the coast was always overrun by 'schoolies' from Brisbane and northern NSW - who inevitably always gave the local students a bad reputation.

Contributor's comments: In WA this is known as "leavers" (presumably short for "school leavers"), as in "The Year 12s are on leavers now". (And Perth kids spend it at Rotto (Rottnest Island)!)

Contributor's comments: "Schoolies' is commonly used in Melbourne to refer to the Brisbane celebrations. Many Victorian schoolleavers head up there.

Contributor's comments: My observation is that it's now in widespread use, but that is relatively recent. It certainly wasn't in use in northern Sydney in the 1950s and 1960s.

Contributor's comments: "Schoolies" is used in Sydney schools nowadays. It refers to going to the Gold Coast and getting smashed for a week!