Remember This? is back for January. Below is a 1973 aerial of Sydney and North Sydney as captured by photographer Ern McQuillan. The aerial places the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the centre of the image while capturing what was referred to as the "twin cities". The photo was featured on Page 1 of the Wentworth Courier in its edition of July 4, 1973.
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
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Source: Sydney Ferries, Sydney Buses & CityRail. 1998, "Don't get stuck when New Year's Eve turns into New Year's Day" (Advertisement). The Sydney Morning Herald, December 30: 11.
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| Above: Promotional poster featured in The Sunday Telegraph on 28 December 1997. |
The previous year (2020) saw access heavily restricted under the Zero Covid policy that NSW and the Commonwealth applied at the time. Key vantage points were closed to the public to avoid mass gatherings as the Northern Beaches experienced an outbreak. Those in the Northern Beaches were subjected to stay-at-home orders.
It will be a quarter of a century before we explore 2020 and 2021, but let's wind back the clock a quarter of a century to 1997.
The story so far...
Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations had their origins in 1989. Back then, it was a thirty-minute fireworks show held at 9pm, which continued each year. Midnight fireworks commenced at midnight on 1 January 1994, though confined to Sydney Tower and Darling Harbour.
The midnight display was first screened on television on the Nine Network to usher in 1997 at midnight on 1 January 1997, while the 9pm show was first broadcast on 31 December 1994, though delayed until midnight. The first live broadcast of the 9pm show was on 31 December 1996.
What was new in 1997?
Source: Totaro, P. 1997. "$2m spectacular to welcome 1998". The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December: 2.
Sydney City Council's aim was to make the celebrations bigger for each year leading up to 1999, and they did not let people down:
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| Above: Vantage points to view the fireworks as published on Page 4 of The Daily Telegraph on 31 December 1997. |
Driving was not recommended, given large sections of the Sydney CBD and The Rocks were closed to vehicular traffic. Despite the fireworks, several lanes of the Sydney Harbour Bridge remained open.
Fireworks Wrap Up
Below is coverage of the festivities from The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald on 1 January 1998.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney's Number One icon - The Sydney Harbour Bridge has even had own visions placed on it. I am not referring to the alternate designs or early proposals, but rather the existing structure itself.
Since opening in 1932, it has had to shoulder the burden of carrying vehicles from north to south and vice versa. For sixty years, it was the only direct crossing for vehicles across Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Harbour Tunnel in 1992 provided Sydney motorists with a second crossing. It did for a few years take the pressure off the bridge itself.
It is anticipated by 2027, a third road crossing, the Western Harbour Tunnel will provide another bypass road for Sydney's CBD. The tunnel will connect the WestConnex with the Warringah Expressway, running under the Balmain Peninsula and North Sydney.
Building a harbour crossing is not cheap. The Western Harbour Tunnel will cost at least $7 billion to build (likely to be higher) and the Sydney Harbour Tunnel cost $560 million to build.
Proposals or visions for additional crossings has lasted for decades.
To avoid construction of new crossings, some have proposed boosting the capacity of the briudge itself through construction of additional road decks, either above or below the existing road deck.
In 1987, Architect Bruce Payne of Whitehead and Payne along with the support of Dr Keith Bradfield (son of Dr. John Bradfield), unveiled a proposal to build two additional strips of lanes above the existing lanes instead of building the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
The two strips would carry an additional four lanes of traffic (combined) with two lanes in each direction.
Source: Anon. 1987. "$100m double-decker plan to cross Harbor". The Daily Telegraph, March 32:13.
It was the not the first proposal. In 2005, "Project Star" proposed that a second deck would be built in the undercarriage of the bridge allowing the bridge to carry an additional four lanes of traffic plus an additional two rail tracks.
In 2010, The Sun Herald, reported on a proposal by transport experts to build a second rail deck underneath the existing road deck to accomodate a new heavy rail line running from St Leonards to the city, following largely what is now the Sydney CBD Metro with new platforms at Wynyard instead of a new station at Barangaroo.
