Spectator boats look on as the 9pm fireworks erupt over the Sydney Harbour Bridge last night. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
South African emigres Robbie Funk and Lauren Crompton on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen Source: The Australian
THE end of 2012 was sealed with a kiss, with the perfect bow of Kylie's red lips appearing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge to count down to 2013.
For a year marked by political rancour, economic unease and, in recent days, the jagged rocks that lie beyond America's fiscal cliff, it was Sydney at its irreverent, saucy best, splashing big on a $6.6 million party complete with a fiery comet, rocket-shooting jet skis, and a harbour laden with revellers and celebrity flotsam.
The image of Ms Minogue's lips, emblazoned high above the party in the final seconds to midnight, will ricochet around the world today, as other nations follow Australia in welcoming 2013, a year the ancient Myans thought we'd never see. The countdown was celebrated by a harbourside chorus of about 1.5 million people, some of whom had claimed their vantage points as early as 4am the previous morning.
The soundtrack, naturally, was Kylie's On a Night Like This, and the mood, if not Minogue herself, was shared across the nation's cities, towns, deserts and beaches.
In Melbourne, an estimated 500,000 people crowded along the bends of the Yarra to see $330,000 worth of fireworks smoked in less than 10 minutes. They were joined by more than 600 cops and transit police. Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp said police would keep the peace but not poop the party. "But if you don't respond to that friendly face and that fair attitude you will be dealt with firmly," he warned.
The fireworks show climaxed with what Lord Mayor Robert Doyle described as a "1970s disco surprise".
In Brisbane, the dance of the dragonflies saw aquatic pyrotechnics spray silver across an incandescent Brisbane River, the result of fireworks packed on to two barges at South Bank.
On the Sunshine Coast town of Mooloolaba, organisers were more intent in making a noise; at the stroke of midnight 2000 large aerial bangs went off at once.
At nearby Cotton Tree, Robbie Funk and Lauren Crompton, and their puppy Hugo, spent much of the day splashing in the sea before washing the sand off to watch the fireworks at Mooloolaba.
The couple moved to Australia from South Africa 18 months ago, for a safer, more carefree life and to study.
Mr Funk was shot during a robbery in Johannesburg and is now a paraplegic, and Ms Crompton hopes the Australian lifestyle will aid his recovery.
Mr Funk said they had really enjoyed their first full year in Australia and hoped the good times would continue in 2013.
"This year we got started with university, and just finished our first year on a high with good marks," he said. "We got engaged and got a puppy. It was a busy year."
Sharyn Madders was hoping she and her friends would make it to midnight after a long day spent playing in the water with their children. "We're cracking open a bottle shortly and we'll have a few drinks, but not too many so we can survive the day tomorrow for a nice, fresh start to the new year."
The Hobart docks and sites around Adelaide also lit up but in Perth, a city baked by scorching summer heat for a week, the biggest new year cheer was not for the fireworks over the Swan River but the cool winds beyond. Having watched the mercury reach 37C each day since Christmas, Perth will receive some respite today and more still tomorrow, when a maximum 27C is forecast.
Yet the hottest place on New Year's Eve was neither Perth nor Sydney's shimmering harbour. It was a checkpoint at the South Australian-Queensland border, where Nel Brooks was feeling the Simpson Desert sand burning through her shoes at 43C.
Ms Brooks was there for a new year ritual in which Birdsville locals ply their four-wheel-drives along the famous track, filling out crosswords and other brain-teasers at stops along the way before ending up dunked in the cool waters of a billabong.
Beyond that, a desert sunset and the night at the Birdsville Hotel beckoned, with last night more special than most. As well as seeing in 2013, the town was celebrating the 70th birthday of Aboriginal elder Jim Crombie.
"Everyone will end up at the billabong and throw each other in the water and we watch the sun set in paradise," said Ms Brooks, who has lived in Birdsville for nearly 40 years after leaving South Africa. "We will spend the evening at the pub celebrating his life."
As for New Year's resolutions? "Rain would be good."
Beneath the veranda of the hotel, publican Gus Duffy predicted a big one. "She's going to be all on tonight," he said.
Not everyone was keen to spend the new year watching fireworks or drinking too much at parties. In the Sydney beachside suburb of Coogee, Anastasia Williams led a group of about 30 people in a guided chanting and visualisation class. The meditation started at 11pm and was to finish at 12.30am.
Ms Williams said the idea was to release and leave behind any negative thoughts from 2012 and set the scene for a positive and healthy new year.
Even in Canberra, on the eve on an election year, politics were forgotten amid the party. In the early hours of this morning, a plane was scheduled to touch down from Sydney with a cargo of Hollywood A-listers determined to see in the new year in Sydney and Las Vegas on the one night. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and pals were to board a 747 charter from Canberra to Nevada, where another city and party awaited.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: SARAH ELKS, MITCHELL NADIN, SUSANNAH MORAN, RACHEL BAXENDALE
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