Only one thing is really certain: it’s time to celebrate ahead of year of uncertainty
As the New Year rang in, the nation put aside unanswered questions to usher in a fresh new beginning. Australians relaxed and celebrate in a spirit of fun and our in-built sense that this country can overcome anything; with the rest of the world holding their own celebrations.
Australians face a lot of uncertainty in 2025.
Who will be the next prime minister, and are we heading towards a hung parliament?
Will there be an interest-rate cut at long, long last and can the cost-of-living crisis finally be put behind us?
How will we repair from a year where foreign wars were allowed to divide our country and hate against our Jewish community was free to flourish?
A million people gathered on the edges of Sydney Harbour late on Tuesday for one of the world’s largest, most technologically advanced displays of fireworks, lighting and projections. For the first time, fireworks dazzled the harbour from both the east and west sides of Sydney Harbour Bridge, as well as the Sydney Opera House and rooftops across the city.
Swaths of sites around the harbour were ticketless, and Italian Federico Monti, 23, and friends Ilenia Pasquali, Benedetta Zucchi and Gloria Galperti decided to brave the crowds to secure a spot in front of Sydney’s Opera House.
“I woke up at six to get here and camp for 12 hours,” Mr Monti said.
Half a million revellers streamed into the centre of Melbourne to see the skyline illuminated with fireworks and the southern hemisphere’s largest laser display.
The light show launched from 27 skyscrapers, with visitors encouraged to view the festivities from four family-friendly “celebration zones” at Docklands, Flagstaff Gardens, Treasury Gardens and the Shrine.
And on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, the temperature was 31.4C and still climbing at 4pm as families settled on the esplanade ahead of an evening of music and fireworks.
It is a modest and cherished event every year. Ned David, a Kulkalaig man from Torres Strait’s central islands, said his people loved to welcome the new year and recent king tides on Thursday Island made great conditions for fishing and boating before the celebrations began.
“Everyone’s just so relaxed and ready for 2025,” he said.
He said the community’s faith in the “greatness of this country” moving into the new year had “never been stronger”, buoyed by the support of fellow Australians.
“The Jewish community will be happy to turn the page on a difficult year and to look with hope and optimism to a better new year,” he said, citing recent anti-Semitic vandalism attacks in Sydney and the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass synagogue. “We have never felt more Australian or more Jewish and despite the intense hatred from the few, we feel a deep love for the many.”
In Adelaide, police were given special powers to remove people behaving in a disorderly manner in Glenelg, where 50,000 revellers were expected to gather to watch fireworks, with the state’s top officers saying they wouldn’t be tolerating any bad behaviour.
In Hobart, families and partygoers made the trip to see a lit-up sky over the River Derwent.
The most remote parts of Australia also marked New Year’s Eve, with the outback town of Cameron Corner on the junction of NSW, Queensland and South Australia celebrating three times in an hour due to the three states’ different time zones. About 200 revellers observed the new year countdown first in NSW, followed 30 minutes later in South Australia and another half hour later in Queensland,
On the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, the only pub in the West Australian mining town of Laverton was closed on Tuesday.
“Town’s pretty quiet; a lot of people go to Perth for Christmas and we don’t see them again until January,” said Laverton shire president Patrick Hill.
Those left behind were due to have a barbecue at the home of Mr Hill’s son.
“I tell the teachers the worst thing you can do is sit in your house,” he said.
“You have to get out and join in.”
A wage dispute between the NSW government and rail unions almost derailed Sydney’s fireworks before a Christmas Eve industrial reprieve, and thousands of people woke up early to secure coveted harbourside spots.
Spaniard Rebeca and her friends said they couldn’t miss the chance to watch the fireworks from the Opera House.“It (New Year’s Eve) is going to be completely different … (we’re on) the other side of the world,” she said. “We don’t have fireworks like Sydney’s in my city.”
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