Australia rang in the New Year with a spectacular display of rainbow-coloured fireworks cascading from Sydney Harbour Bridge and thousands turned out earlier in New Zealand’s largest city Auckland.
Australia rang in the New Year with a spectacular display of rainbow-coloured fireworks cascading from Sydney Harbour Bridge, as revellers marked the nation’s legalisation of gay marriage amid tight security.
About 1.5 million people packed the city’s foreshore to watch the pyrotechnics light up the sky above the historic bridge and the iconic opera house, the first major celebrations worldwide after New Zealand.
“This is a fabulous way to see out 2017 — the year that four out of five Sydneysiders said a resounding ‘Yes’ to marriage equality,” said Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore of the nationwide postal vote in support of change.
