The Catholic Leader - 12 November - Issue 5477

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The Catholic Leader, November 12, 2017
Rosies at Schoolies
Decades of care from
Schoolies mission extends to homeless, needy youth on Coast
30 years on: Early members of Rosies Gold Coast get together for a reunion. They are (back from left) James White, Kate Andersen, Allan Anders-
en and John Ryan; and (front) Greg Scott, Berny Power, Geoff Harrison, Alan Quinn, Therese Sheppard and John Daly.
Caring attitude: At the Rosies youth shelter in Surfers Paradise, Fr Paul Costello (right) and Angela
Clarke provide hospitality to Ross and Maddog in 1990.
By Mark Bowling
THIRTY years ago a group of 28
young adults embarked on a unique
and adventurous mission – to pro-
vide safe activities for Schoolies
flocking to Surfers Paradise.
Little did they know that their faith, determi-
nation and sense of purpose that created Rosies
Gold Coast would be alive and strong today,
with final preparations for Schoolies 2017.
Schoolies was very different then.
It was rough and raw – still a culture of sex
and booze, but not the $40 million industry of to-
day, with tens of thousands of teenagers invading
the glitter strip.
“We converted the Surfers Paradise St Vin-
cent’s Church car park into our coffee shop and
drop-in centre,” John Daly, one of the original
Rosies team members, said.
“A DJ played music and everyone was wel-
come to come in for a break, a chat and a cup of
coffee.
“We used the Anglican Church hall next door
as our base and communications centre, and had
several loaned school buses which not only fer-
ried our crew around but were also equipped as
mobile coffee shops.”
Mr Daly, a teacher at Clairvaux MacKillop
College, Upper Mt Gravatt, sported “a mullet”
hairstyle back then.
He said the original Rosies members had “fan-
tastic support and a very real sense of purpose”.
“The first Rosies Gold Coast was modelled on
the Victorian Rosebud Oblate drop-in centre,”
Mr Daly said.
“Rosies Gold Coast had similar ideologies and
vision, providing a safe and alternative venue and
activity for youth staying at Surfers Paradise for
Schoolies Week and summer holidays.
“In 1987, not only did the nights keep the
team of 28 busy ministering to the needs of rev-
ellers, many of whom were schoolies, but in the
afternoons we also ran sport and recreational
activities on the Surfers Paradise beach.
“At times we also busked in the mall provid-
ing light entertainment for the schoolies who
couldn’t get into the clubs, and late at night gave
lost or lonely schoolies lifts home.
“What the crew soon realised was that not only
was there a need to mission to the schoolies, but
that there were also homeless and needy youth on
the coast who also needed a helping hand.
“This need became the direction for Rosies in
future years.”
In 1987, The Catholic Leader provided an
“inside view” of Schoolies as journalist Barbara
Mead joined the Rosies Mission, to report.
“Screams and live-band music belt out the
dark maw that is the entrance to a beer garden –
alcohol and noise have a stronger pull than surf
and sand,” she wrote.
“It will close at 3am – and many of the young
who tumble out into the early morning salt air
will have spent afternoon, evening, night and
morning there. It is the same story from opening
to closing at all the popular drinking places.
“Only a handful are surfing, hundreds on the
beach. They sit in groups, in pairs, alone.
“Mid afternoon and a change comes over the
listlessness.
“Fifty kids in white T-shirts blazoned with a
lolly-pink logo, scream on to the sand with vol-
leyball nets and footballs. They bring movement,
life, laughter.
“Teams form and grow, and games move from
water’s edge to dunes and back, over and around
the near-naked sunbathers.
“Surfers Paradise beach is suddenly a happier,
healthier, younger place.
“The lolly-pink logos are circles enclosing
the Christian fish symbols, a coffee cup – for the
hospitality and friendship – stylised sun and surf
for Surfers Paradise and the one word: ‘Rosies’.”
The 1987 mission ran only for the two weeks
of Schoolies at Surfers Paradise.
Oblate Father Paul Costello was instrumental
in co-ordinating the mission and recruitment of
young helpers, ably assisted by the late Sandra
Hazel.
“We gathered at Iona College, where Fr Paul
taught alongside Sandra, from around April in
1987,” Mr Daly said.
“Most were Brisbane-based university stu-
dents or workers who answered Paul’s call.
“Some of us had lived on the Gold Coast and
had local knowledge.”
Fr Costello drew young people from all walks
of life and invited them to be part of the mission,
riding in the wake of the successful Antioch,
Young Christian Workers, CLAG and Walka-
bout youth movements that were happening at
the time.
The Catholic Leader described Fr Costello,
back then on Surfers Paradise beach, as “hard to
pick out among the running, laughing, fully alive
young footballers”.
“And that ability to blend, to listen, to look be-
hind the façade, has given him a unique insight
to Schoolies Week,” the report said.
Fr Costello described Schoolies as a “rite of
passage”.
“Because it happens here in this fantasy place
it is different from anything anywhere else,” he
told The Catholic Leader.
“We know the young look for role models.
What are the role models they see here?”
Rosies offered a witness, an alternative, a sup-
port, a great faith experience through the work of
its members.
“The Rosies Gold Coast mission may have
been a naive attempt to give the schoolies an
alternative to the alluring lights and nightlife of
Surfers Paradise, but in doing so it unearthed a
more needy and real mission, helping those who
were homeless and in need living on the glitter
strip,” Mr Daly said.
“If they wouldn’t come to us, then we went to
them and so the concept of the travelling coffee
vans was born, in the form of modified buses
being parked at either end of Cavill Avenue and
the Broadbeach Hotel.”
Life-long friendships
The formation and early ministry of Gold
Coast Rosies has led to life-long friendships.
Most of the early members are in their 50s.
They have married, had families, had their
own children experience the Schoolies rite of
passage, and sadly some have died.
“There are so many stories, some very
personal and some life-changing based on the
experiences that each of us had in the formation
of Rosies,” Mr Daly said.
CONTINUED PAGE 13
What the crew
soon realised was
that not only was there
a need to mission to the
schoolies, but that there
were also homeless
and needy youth on the
coast who also needed
a helping hand.