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Photo: People usher in the new year by writing 2013 with sparklers, December 26, 2012. (AFP: Patrick Pleul) 
Photo: Fireworks explode on the rooftops of buildings in the city during early New Year's Eve celebrations in Sydney, December 31, 2012. More than 1.5 million people were expected to line the foreshores of the harbour to watch the annual fireworks show at midnight. (Reuters: David Gray) 
Photo: People watch fireworks around Sydney Harbour during New Years Eve celebrations on December 31, 2012. (Getty: Brendon Thorne) 
Photo: Fireworks light up the sky from the Sydney Harbour Bridge at midnight during New Years celebrations on January 1, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Getty: Cameron Spencer) 
Photo: Fireworks explode over and around the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House during New Year celebrations, January 1, 2013. More than 1.5 million people were expected to line the foreshores of the harbour to watch the annual fireworks show. (Reuters: David Gray) 
Photo: Fireworks fill the sky above Sydney Harbour, as seen from Mrs Macquaries Point, during New Year celebrations, January 1, 2013. (AAP: Damian Shaw)
Gallery: New Years celebrations around the world
Australian cities have kicked off a wave of dazzling firework displays, as the clock struck midnight across the country and revellers welcomed the New Year.
Sydney ushered in the New Year with a $6.6 million fireworks display curated by pop icon Kylie Minogue, who designed the colour scheme and soundtrack.
"Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations are world-famous and reach over a billion people - not just because we have the first major display for 2013, but because it's the best," said the city's lord mayor Clover Moore.
More than 1.5 million people crowded the waterfront to watch the seven tonnes of fireworks go up, including crackers launched from jet-skis and a show-stopping finale on the Harbour Bridge.
This year saw an interactive twist, with smartphone users able to download an app which will colour their screens. Held aloft, en masse, the devices create their own show along the shore.
Melbourne spent more than $2 million on its midnight show, which saw fireworks launched from 22 firing sites across the city.
In Canberra, thousands flocked to Civic Square to ring in the New Year, while revellers in Hobart gathered at the docks.
In Adelaide, the biggest New Year celebrations were on the beach at Glenelg, and in Darwin, thousands spent midnight at the waterfront.
Brisbane also welcomed the New Year with a big bang, with partygoers watching from South Bank as fireworks showered the sky.
As the clock struck midnight in Auckland, fireworks were set off over the city's Sky Tower near the harbour.
The Fijian city of Suva was also lit up with a dazzling fireworks display and annual street party.
Major fireworks will also ignite the Thames in London and Moscow's Red Square and Kremlin, as well as central Stockholm and Amsterdam.
Revellers in New York will celebrate the stroke of midnight with the traditional New Year's Eve ball drop over Times Square, where South Korean internet pop sensation Psy will join a host of American music stars.
In Rio de Janeiro, authorities have promised a bumper 16-minute, 24-tonne display opposite Copacabana Beach.
Fireworks will cap a mammoth party at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate featuring the Pet Shop Boys, Bonnie Tyler and Blue.
In Paris, however, the authorities issued a reminder that all fireworks are officially banned for the night. The crowds that gather on the Champs-Elysees and around the Eiffel Tower will have to make do without any display.
And in Caracas, the mayor cancelled the city's traditional end-of-year concert in Bolivar Square, instead asking Venezuelans to pray at home for ailing president Hugo Chavez, who suffered a new setback after cancer surgery.
ABC/AFP
Topics: human-interest, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000, australia, brazil, germany, united-states
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