You can thank a couple of schoolies having sex on the beach 25 years ago for all the events that are now planned for Year 12 school leavers.

Well, in a roundabout way …

In fact, it was a police officer who led the charge to give school leavers something to do during Schoolies Week in the mid-1990s.

Schoolies Week, a rite of passage for school leavers, has come a long way from its original incarnation of teenagers filling the streets and pubs of Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise.

In 2019, teens are heading to the Gold Coast knowing there is a week of planned, regulated activities for them, like beach concerts and support from government services and community organisations.

Margaret Grummitt was one of those responsible for changing how Schoolies is celebrated on the Gold Coast. ( ABC Gold Coast: Solua Middleton )

But the roots of this idea came from former police officer Senior Sergeant Margaret Grummitt in 1995, who steered teenagers into targeted events, all in an environment geared around safety.

Ms Grummitt was called upon to do something about schoolies, triggered by a complaint to the premier's office about a passionate couple on the beach.

"Someone from a high-rise complained [that] schoolies were having sex in the sand dunes," she said.

"I just looked at him dumbfounded and thought 'where do I start?'."

Creating safe places for teens to go

She began fundraising, working with Queensland Health and the Gold Coast City Council, talking to local businesses and the community, and created a Schoolies Task Force that included Year 12 students from several local schools.

"These were the kids that were coming to party; they wanted to be able to party in safety," she said.

Volunteers are integral to ensuring schoolies are looked after during the celebrations. ( ABC Gold Coast: Candice Marshall, file photo )

"They wanted to be dancing in the street — we had them dancing on the beach so if they fell over, they didn't hurt themselves."

Another outcome from the task force was to create a safe space where schoolies who might be drunk, were lost or just needed some respite from the 24-hour cycle of partying could go — the Chill-Out Zone.

This premise of this became so successful that the zone soon became a permanent fixture in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach from Thursday through to Saturday nights, and is still there, almost 25 years later.

"I wanted them to give a party and I wanted them to do it safely," she said.

"We didn't get any kudos at the time because it was in its infancy, but Queensland Health decided to take it on board and every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night it's well known that she will be there."

Chilling out without judgement

That 'she' is Angela Driscoll, long-time coordinator of the Chill-Out Zone, who said the model had not changed much from the original.

"The philosophy of it, the principles of it — to provide support to people with no judgement when they need that support, in a place where there really aren't that many options around for support in a late-night environment," she said.

The Chill-Out Zone, an outcome of the Schoolies Task Force, is still around 25 years later. ( Supplied: Chill Out Zone )

"I think it was recognised [to work] so well for that period, that it was something that was needed every weekend in a nightlife precinct like Surfers that is just so busy."

Ms Grummitt said she copped criticism at the time.

"A lot of people were saying 'look, you're pushing harm minimisation; what about no alcohol at all?'. I said, 'well, you try and enforce it'," she said.

"A lot of people were critical of me because they were saying 'you're creating work for us', but I liked it because it confined the kids to one suburb."

Logistically Ms Grummitt felt it made sense to have all the schoolies in one area because of the linear layout of the Gold Coast, meaning there were fewer police cars driving across the coast.

"From a management perspective, we were able to contain them all on the beach of Surfers Paradise," she said.

Ms Grummitt looks back at her Schoolies work with fondness.

"I look back now with a bit of a smile and think 'yes, we did good, we did well'. It wasn't just one person, it was a team," she said.

"I was just a person pulling that team all together, but I must stress we were criticised for what we were doing … we just needed to give them something to do."