Safety & Advisories

If Your Schoolies Trip Is Overseas, Methanol Poisoning Can Take 12 to 24 Hours to Show, Here’s What to Do

Smartraveller says methanol poisoning can look like a bad hangover for 12–24 hours. Here’s what Australian school leavers and parents should know…

By Kevin Crow · Oct 9, 2026

Methanol poisoning can feel like an ordinary hangover at first, and Smartraveller, the Australian Government’s travel advice service, says symptoms can take 12 to 24 hours to appear. A hangover that is worse than it should be, or gets worse over time, is the…

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Why methanol is the risk to know about

Methanol is a toxic alcohol that can end up in spirits and cocktails made with counterfeit or badly made drinks. You cannot see, smell or taste it in a mixed drink. The case that changed how Australia talks about this was Vang Vieng in Laos, where six people…

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What to watch for and what to do

Treat a hangover that keeps getting worse as an emergency, not a rough morning. Other travel-health sources add blurred vision, tunnel vision, breathlessness, confusion and severe vomiting to the red flags, and say that several people who shared drinks…

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What the Australian Government has put in place

On 18 November 2025 the government launched a campaign with DrinkWise called Drinking? Drink Mindfully, aimed at helping school leavers travel safely and look after their friends. It covers moderating alcohol, the risks of methanol poisoning and what to do…

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The limit nobody tells school leavers about

Smartraveller is blunt that when you leave Australia you leave behind the emergency and medical services you take for granted at home, and DFAT has repeatedly warned there are limits to the consular help it can give. It cannot pay hospital bills or fly you…

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