Alcohol on the Cape-BUSTED!!

pure manure laws them.... unbelieveable, and great for tourism...

I thought if they were pleading guilty they wouldnt have to stay and wait?

where are the boundaries where the no alcohol law kicks in - we will be heading that way early next year and I am sure that my husband will have alcohol on board!!
Jen

Interesting law,

You can only have 1 slab of lite beer and 2 litres of wine in a vehicle but can store as much at home (camp) as you wish.

There are signs all the way up and brochures at most points we stopped at with maps showing the restricted areas.

Maybe it would have been better to skull the 4 tinnies and risk drink driving.

Redeye

Which town? We were up there in August and thought the information and instructions were very clear. Totally dry towns which are rare. We stashed our supplies outside the restrcited area and picked it up on the way back.

Hope you werent carrying any petrol or tube repair glue. or for that matter any aerisol cans. The locals would have thought it was xmas. And to think, my taxes are helping to support these people and their siily laws...........nissnut.

While I sort of understand the need for some of these laws, bootlegging 4 cans of midstreangth is hardly going to buy the beachouse! surely commonsense should be th.........oh thats right, commonsense is not to common these days, in some places, its as illegal as alcohol.

When we went through Kalumburu a few months back, we had about 200 beers and 2 bottles of rum. Didn't bring any home, and didn't sell any either. Its illegal in the township, but not at honeymoon. Thankfully there is a bit of commonsense still there, if its not on display, its OK.

Cheers Andrew

Hows it going Matt,

Almost did the same on the way up the cape in 04 , we stopped for a night half way up the OTL track and sorted it out .

At Sesia then you could buy mid strength or light beer , but they also sold normal wine , the result was that the locals just drank the wine . I think it was fairly expensive from memory , perhaps as a deterrent.

I was speaking to the guy in the tourist info place while we were there and was told the alcohol laws were made after the local ban was in place and guys were rocking up with a truck full of full strength cases and flogging them off locally , at a large profit of course .

As mentioned earlier the town they must have stopped at must have been fully dry .

Hope common sense prevails .

Glenn.

They should have been ok with Mid-Strength as far as i knew and i was up there with Redeye that you were permitted 9L of Mid or Light beer and a cask of Red and a cask of white non fortified wine.
We were buying a carton of XXXX Gold every day while at Bamaga.

The problem I think they might have is some communities have a Zero alcohol limit.

These laws are ridiculous for obvious travellers and holiday makers.
I could have walked into the Bamaga Tavern and ordered as much full strenght Beer, Rum , Bourbon and Scotch as i could drink provided i drank it in the Tavern.

Well F**k them, I won't go near the place.

Plenty of other places in Oz for a social drinker to visit.

Luck if they only lose 2 weeks out of their holiday!
In the NT you can lose everything, including your car!

Apparently the QLD government plane and "staff "appear exempt for these laws. I seem to remember a little issue with a bottle of wine and a government plane. Maybe that should be used as case law in the defence. The alleged of wine would have more standard drinks than 4 midies

Sandy not Steve!! (have decided I will have to join as a visitor for my little rants)

Don't have a problem with the restrictions or dry areas, whether it works or not, better to be trying to solve a problem than hide your head in the sand and say there isn't one! I think if someone can't go a day or two with out alcohol then perhaps they have the problem! (Just wait a sec while I take cover!)

Without knowing all the facts, I would think that there has to be a better way of dealing with tourists, not that we should be allowed a free for all on alcohol.

We've just returned from CY and camped for a night at Cooks Hut Camp, we did a drive into Lockhart River and while we remembered to empty our car of alcohol, I'm not sure all in our group did! With our fridges mounted in our cars it's easy to forget exactly what you're carrying when you've set up camp and then head off for a drive to explore the area. Could have easily been caught up in a similar situation.

Not sure what the solution is, but I guess just try and be aware of where you are and what you're carrying, and don't rely on the person selling the alcohol to you to know what the rules are! We bought alcohol after checking with the supplier, only to end up leaving a stash on the road side to collect later once we realised that we had to drive through a town with restrictions to get to our campsite!

Like many others on this forum I'd be interested to hear how this all pans out!

Sandy

why do they need to stay?
are they under arrest?....or do they want to stay so that they can put the case forward?

Whilst we are on this subject, may I move slightly off topic and ask those Westwegians amongst us, Is it still illegal to "carry" an exposed bottle while walking on the street?

When we were over in WA a couple of years ago, we went to a BYO resturant with some friends we hadn't seen for many years. My mate and I strolled over to the Liquor store and bought a bottle of wine each and on the way back, passing a rubbish bin, I removed the brown paper bag and put it in the bin.
WELL, do you think I got TOLD by my mate. It seems as though it is illegal to remove the "wrapping" from your purchase, until you have removed yourself from the sidewalk.

Nice place WA, but a little "backwards" methinks.

Given that we have legislation providing positive advantages to persons who can prove they are of Aboriginal descent why are these possession laws not also targeted purely at persons of Aboriginal descent, after all, it is the alcohol issue in Aboriginal communities these laws are intended to address? Separate laws could be in place for persons of any descent who supply or consume alcohol in these dry areas? Or would that be Politically Incorrect?

Mike Harding