Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and each year, I post an entry on how Sydney welcomed the new year 25 years beforehand.
The year of focus is 1999.
This New Year's Eve was widely accepted as the last of the second millennium, though it will always be disputed as there was no year "zero". The millennium ended at 11:59 pm on December 21 2000, as it would mark exactly two thousand years.
Cities, towns and villages around the world all wanted to present the biggest celebration that they could do for their citizens to mark the new millennium.
By the end of the 1990s, Sydney had built up a reputation for its New Year's Eve fireworks shows, whether at 9pm or to welcome in 1999, at midnight and was attracting global coverage.
The changeover from 1999 to 2000 was also significant for Sydney because 2000 marked the year it would host the Olympic Games that year and the world would converge on the city for two weeks of sporting competition.
It meant that Sydney had to welcome the new year in Olympic style. It had to be the biggest and the best.
How did it happen?
Program
- From 8:30 pm to 11:20 pm - Floating Sea Creature Parade on Sydney Harbour - This comprised a loop around Sydney Harbour. From any vantage point, the parade lasted 25 minutes from the passing of the first sea creature.
- 9 pm - Family Fireworks
- 12 pm - Midnight Fireworks
Below is the soundtrack and how the midnight display would work.
Sourced from: Anon. 1999. "NYE Last-minute guide". The Daily Telegraph, December 31: 40.
Launch positions
Sourced from: Anon. 1999. "NYE Last-minute guide". The Daily Telegraph, December 31: 40.
- Four barges were located in Sydney Harbour - Off Cockatoo Island, Goat Island, Fort Denison and Bradleys Head.
- The Sydney Harbour Bridge
- Sydney Opera House (It was meant to be a "one-off" but became permanent in 2013)
- Sydney Tower
- Skyscrapers in the Sydney and North Sydney CBDs including Chifley Tower, Goldfields House and Grosvenor Place.
There will be eight barges for 2024. Apart from the four locations in 1999, there will be a second barge off Goat Island (one on its eastern side and one on the other side of the island, one just west of the harbour bridge, one to the north of the Opera House and one located off Garden Island.
Bridge Effects
Sourced from The Sun Herald, January 2, 2000
Two lighting effects were featured during the display:
- Smiley Face (As featured in the 1997 New Year's Eve Fireworks Display) - It is the only bridge effect to be used more than once.
- Arthur Stace's etching of Eternity - This appeared at the end of the show and was in tribute to the late Arthur Stace, a Christian man who etched Eternity fifty times a day from the 1930s until he died in 1967. Bells were rung from St Marys Cathedral and St Andrews Cathedral as it was switched on.
A recreation of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Eternity was featured in the 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony held at Stadium Australia, Sydney Olympic Park on September 15, 2000, as part of a pyrotechnics display in the Eternity segment. The segment was about paying tribute to those who have been involved in building infrastructure across Australia over time.
TV Broadcasters
- Nine Network
- ABC
This was the first and only time two television free to air networks broadcast the Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks.
The Nine Network had an agreement to broadcast the fireworks with Sydney City Council from 1997-2000 and ended up with the "official" footage and accompanying soundtrack in its broadcast.
The ABC partnered up with TV Broadcasters from 60 nations as part of 2000 Today, which was the world's biggest TV Broadcast to date. ABC provided its own footage of the fireworks and could not play the soundtrack that accompanied them. Footage of Sydney's fireworks would be interspersed between other celebrations that occurred at the same time - Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart, with the soundtrack that of Melbourne's midnight fireworks, which could be played on any broadcast (Channel Nine also did the Melbourne fireworks soundtrack for when they aired the Midnight fireworks immediately following Sydney's Fireworks).
Interestingly, the BBC (UK) Broadcast of 2000 Today accommodated footage from both the Nine Network and the ABC. Click here to view the coverage presented by Michael Parkinson and Rolf Harris.
The Nine Network tried to prevent the ABC from broadcasting the fireworks by claiming "exclusive rights" in the Federal Court, but was unsuccessful.
In 2024, ABC will broadcast the fireworks.
Transport
For the Millennium celebrations, train services operated on a 24-hour timetable to give revellers plenty of time to travel to and from the city.
However, due to concerns about the Y2K bug, all underground stations were closed between 11:45 pm and 1:45 am to ensure that passengers were safe in case. Those leaving the city immediately after the midnight fireworks had to walk either to Central or Milsons Point to take trains home.
A three-day rail ticket was offered for $10 to cover rail travel between December 31 and January 2. Sydney Buses provided their $10 Millennium tickets, which covered 36 hours from 12:00 am on New Year's Eve until 12 pm the following day.
Source: New South Wales Department of Transport. 1999. "24 hour trains on New Year's Eve" (Advertisement). The Sunday Telegraph, December 26:10.
Below is a map of Sydney CBD closures and bus terminals.
The Sunday Telegraph and The Sun Herald (January 2, 2000) reported that public transport services ran smoothly, with 250 000 travelling by rail, 150 000 by bus and 33 000 on Ferries.
Facts of interest
- The festivities cost an estimated $5 million. This year, the fireworks are estimated to cost $6.3 million.
- An estimated 200,000 individual fireworks were launched.
- The midnight fireworks lasted approximately 25 minutes, the longest show to date.
- As many as 1.5 million attended the fireworks.
- An estimated 6000 spectator craft were on Sydney Harbour (About 7000 spectator craft were reported to have been on Sydney Harbour for the Bicentenary celebrations in 1988). The Sydney Morning Herald (January 1, 2000) estimated that 100,000 people watched the fireworks from a boat in Sydney Harbour.
Coverage
There was extensive coverage in newspapers, given the historical significance of the celebrations. The front page of The Daily Telegraph featured at the top of the post published a special wrap round as part of a 16-page special.
The Sydney Morning Herald
They also published a dawn edition several hours after their regular metropolitan edition to focus on the first sunrise over Sydney of the new millennium. It was an overcast morning.
The Weekend Australian
The Sun Herald (January 2, 2000)
A complete broadcast of the midnight fireworks from Channel Nine was uploaded to Youtube by TheSydneyFireworks if you wish to view the entire show.
ABC America
Uploaded by Mason R to Youtube
Uploaded by Hutchinson Video Archive to Youtube. Sydney Fireworks coverage begins at 28:36 in the video.
That is how Sydney welcomed 2000 and the new millennium in a nutshell. I wish you all a very happy new year. Remember This? returns for its summer series from next week.
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