After South Australia’s 3am lockout, are Darwin and Gold Coast to follow?

South Australia’s 3am lockout kicked in on October 1 following an unsuccessful attempt to stop it by two Adelaide late night venues, The Woolshed and The Palace Gallery, which launched a Supreme Court injunction to overturn the SA Government’s new state-wide Code of Conduct legislation. The legislation also means metal detectors after midnight and the need for drink marshall and a ban on shots and shooters after 4 am.

Nightclub operators insist that the move is hurting the business, and that they are forced to cut back on hours, staff, security, and raise entry fees.  The Woolshed announced on its Facebook that it has raised its cover charge from $10 to $15 after midnight. But some of its patrons accused it of profiteering. The SA chapter of the Australian Hotels Association is going along with the Code but its CEO Ian Horne has commented that a state-wide lockout was unnecessary and that a blanket ban was a problem for venues that were trouble-free.

The Government budgeted $50,000 for a three month trial of extra bus services in 13 routes on Sundays from 2 am to 5 am to get revellers home. Managed taxi ranks will also operate on Friday and Saturday nights with security officers and CCTV cameras. Extra police and liquor-licensing inspectors were deployed on the weekend to make sure that venues were following the code, although no one will be charged for three weeks at least over any breaches until operators and staff get settled with the code.

In the meantime, there are calls for a 3am lockout to be introduced in Darwin and the Gold Coast.

Independent MLA Gerry Wood called for similar measures in Darwin after the second fatality in as many months in the city’s centre. He said, “It worked in Newcastle, the amount of assaults went down.”

One-time Surfers Paradise nightclub king Billy James told the Gold Coast Bulletin that the only way to win the war against bikies was to close the clubs early.  “The only way to stop them from controlling precincts is to change the culture and that means shutting the clubs at 2am,” he said.