Take a look at an important event in the life of Australian school students.


LYN KEEP: So many decisions, so little time for 18-year-old Laura Middlebrook as she prepares for the honorary rite of passage from schoolgirl to party girl.

HAIRDRESSER: Come and take a seat and we'll have a chat.

LYN KEEP: Tonight is the Gold Coast teenager's year 12 formal and months of planning have gone into making it a night to remember.

LYN KEEP: Make-up artist Karlie is already hard at work on one of Laura's classmates. The girls have had make-up trials and are now handing over big bucks to make sure their faces look as perfect as their hair. It's a work in progress. Hairdresser Phil is confident Laura will join a long list of happy customers.

LYN KEEP: Before the official ball starts, there's the pre-formal gathering, which kicks off at dusk at various locations around the Coast.

STEVE CHALKER, FATHER: You look beautiful baby.

SAMATHA CHALKER, DAUGHTER: Thank you dad.

STEVE CHALKER: I want you to have a really good night tonight.

LYN KEEP: The Chalker's have opened their home to a large group of friends of daughter Samantha and all the parents.
It's a formal night ritual. Here the students meet up with their partners, compare shoes and finally reveal their outfits.

MARISSA JONES, STUDENT: I picked the material myself and my seamstress up in Brisbane she beaded this whole panel here and all these little sequin things here yeah. I'm really happy with it, I love it so much.

LYN KEEP: How much did it cost you?

MARISSA JONES: The material was $650, and the beads were $50 dollars and she charged me $100 so it was $800 all up for the dress.

LYN KEEP: Spending thousands of dollars to get the look the girls want is neither uncommon or surprising to the experts, who say with the interest in marriage declining, formals can now be the biggest event in a young adult's life.

Laura puts on the finishing touches and relishes the prospect of stepping out in her adult finery.

This rite of passage transition is not just for her, it's for her parents too.

STEVE CHALKER: To me it felt like a wedding. Like everything was fussing, we had hair trials, and there was a dress fitting every other day and I just kept opening my wallet. It was a very weird experience.

GUEST: I have to wind it.

LYN KEEP: Patrick Wallas is the school principal and while he oversees the night's celebrations he has just one rule tonight, no alcohol and there's not a school gym in sight. These days high school formals are five star.

DR FELICITY GRACE: It often happens in a separate space, like a hotel, it often involves spectacle or carnival because you get to take up like an actor, a new identity try it out in a new frock and try it on what would it be like being an adult.

PATRICK WALLAS: My great challenge is I think, education specially when it gets to years 11 and 12 has become a little bit relentless and there's not as much fun as there used to be, not as much of a sense of the joy of learning. Nights like tonight remind us about a very important aspect of education, which is the ability for young people just to form relationships in a healthy constructive way and to just enjoy each other.