"People were climbing up trees, I saw someone fall out of a tree. there was a guy by the lamppost and he started shaking it and broke the lamp. After that happened the cops came in and started clearing everyone off.
"It just got really out of hand really fast."
Heard estimated there were about 300 people on the street.
Queenstown-Wakatipu ward councillor Valerie Miller said seeing disorderly behaviour in the area broke her heart.
"One of the things that was great about Queenstown when I was younger is it always felt completely safe, I never felt scared, so to see it change is such a tragedy."
She said the council was very aware of the issue and had actively been looking for ways to mitigate it, such as CCTV cameras and increased lighting.
"I have had feedback from locals who are too frightened to go into town now. It is a real shame.
"We [council] have had sessions with police. It's scary because we know it can just take one punch to seriously injure someone for the rest of their life."
When bars closed at midnight last night, hundreds of people poured out onto the streets in central Queenstown. Photo / George Heard
The behaviour seemed to have ramped up since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Miller said.
"In the past, we have had a huge number of young people coming here on New Year's Eve and it's always a problem. Now we've got other types of behaviour, a lot of fighting and the use of drugs as well and I think it fuels this kind of thing.
"It had been creeping in for a while but it seems to have become much more of an issue since Covid-19.
"Whether it's young people with less to do or who have less investment in their future, I'm not sure."
