Revellers have gathered at Mrs Macquarie’s chair on Sydney harbour to vie for the best views of the Sydney fireworks display
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00:00Well, Sydney, as per usual, is turning one on.
00:05It's a beautiful, sunny day out here, not too hot, so good news for the people who have
00:11been waiting several hours already.
00:14I'm down here at Mrs Macquarie's chair, right in front of the Sydney Opera House and the
00:18Harbour Bridge, probably one of the best spots in town.
00:22There are still hundreds of people lining up, waiting to get through the gates.
00:27When I came through, they were told it was still about an hour before some people were
00:31going to be able to get their bags checked.
00:33Many people decided to come down earlier, at about six o'clock this morning, they started
00:37lining up to try and stake their claim on the best bit of grass to be able to watch
00:42the nine o'clock and the twelve o'clock fireworks tonight, but reality really is setting in
00:47here.
00:48They still have about half a day before the main event, so lots of eskies, card games,
00:53umbrellas around to try and keep themselves entertained.
00:57As you said, Australia is one of the first countries to bring in the new year.
01:03It's a spectacle that people watch from right across the world, and that is evident coming
01:08down here.
01:09We've spoken to people from Brazil, Peru, the UK, India, you name it, whatever country,
01:15someone is probably here from there.
01:18Also looking across the harbour, you can see the vantage points at Milsons Point and the
01:22Opera House as well, also dotted with hundreds, thousands of people filling up the harbour,
01:28and boats are also starting to fill up the harbour as well, claiming their spot in the
01:33water.
01:34Here's what a few people had to say.
01:35We came here because the fireworks are very famous, it's like a bucket list, so we came
01:42to get a ticket.
01:43All the kids are graduating and we thought this would be the last big family event, so
01:48we travelled a long way to be here.
01:50It was really funny to see all the people, there were the long queues, the running, running
01:56with the balls.
01:57The plan for the day really, I'm here with my daughter and our plan is just to enjoy
02:01and soak up the atmosphere and enjoy some really good fireworks.
02:05It's a bucket list situation, so we thought we would give it a go, make the queue.
02:14About a million people are expected to come and line Sydney's harbour shore to watch the
02:20event tonight, and being down here today, it's quite hard to believe that there was
02:24even the possibility of this event being cancelled when the State Government and NSW Police warned
02:29that may be the case if train strikes went ahead, but the dispute between the Rail Unions
02:35and the State Government has been temporarily resolved with the Rail Unions saying that
02:39they won't strike or disrupt any services tonight.
02:42In fact, that means that the State Government's plan to increase services to get people safely
02:46to and from the city can go ahead.
02:49Obviously, people are being told to use public transport with lots of road closures around
02:54the CBD, the Harbour Bridge being closed late this evening, and around those main vantage
02:59points.
03:00So, use public transport if you can, trains, buses, that is the message.
03:04At 9 o'clock, the show will obviously kick off with a display created by an Indigenous
03:10group and then the main show at 12 o'clock tonight.
03:14It's meant to be one of the biggest yet, but there is still plenty of time to wait
03:18for many people down here.