For New Years Eve (NYE, or hashtag #SydNYE), we set up our tent on Cockatoo Island camping in the middle of Sydney Harbour. Cockatoo Island is an old industrial site which reminded us of Pittsburgh given the many old steel manufacturing building there, like in the huge turbine assembly plant used for ship engines.

We watched the fireworks with thousands of other people who managed to get tickets to one of the campgrounds set up on the little Island. Others just put up chairs somewhere on the shorelines of Sydney Harbour, or charter a boat to see the fireworks from the water (between $1,000 and $3,000 per person depending on the boat). The city officials tweeted at 9:30 pm on NYE that “All Vantage Points in the City, Darling Harbour, and North Sydney are FULL. Do not travel into the city or North Sydney.”

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New Years Evening in Sydney is something very special! Before the family fireworks at 9 pm, there was an airshow and a Welcome to Country honouring the traditional owners of the land. Then at 9 pm, we watched the Family Fireworks Display that originated from barges that were anchored on the Sydney Harbour—one of them very close to Cockatoo Island providing us with a front-row seat. The Midnight Fireworks Display was spectacular as expected, but due to the direction of the wind, the fireworks were partially obstructed by the smoke emitted from the exploding pyrotechnic. After staying the night on the Island, we departed to our car via a ferry shuttle next morning. 

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More images here.