New Year celebrations in Melbourne

ABC NEWS (Australia)

More than 500,000 people gathered in Melbourne's CBD on Wednesday night to ring in the new year. Police said they were happy with the public's behaviour overall but responded to more than 50 assaults across the city during celebrations. More than 20 weapons were seized, and several fireworks-related fires were reported. Paramedics treated more than 60 people during the night.

Transcript

00:00As the clock struck midnight, cascades of colours lit up the sky above Melbourne.

00:13More than half a million people gathered in the city to get a glimpse of the moment.

00:17It was wonderful, yeah.

00:20I loved it.

00:21Happy New Year.

00:22The way the end was, there's just different fireworks all throughout the air.

00:25It was a really good experience.

00:27We chose to soak in the last rays of 2024 by taking a cruise, dressing up and dancing

00:33before the early family-friendly fireworks across the city.

00:36I love this firework.

00:37Same!

00:38I was about to say that.

00:40In Flagstaff Gardens, revellers set up early to claim their spots, but the best view in

00:44the house was from mum and dad's shoulders.

00:47The crowd was calm for much of the evening as they waited patiently for the big moment.

00:52Many had travelled from far and wide to witness the occasion.

00:55We're from Switzerland, from Germany, Austria.

00:59We are from Roma.

01:00Buon anno!

01:02Emergency services say they were overwhelmingly pleased with the crowd's behaviour.

01:07We haven't seen very many serious injuries at all.

01:10But police still responded to dozens of assaults and made 14 arrests for weapon possession.

01:15Across the state, there were almost 300 fireworks-related incidents.

01:20Police seized a number of illegal fireworks, including at Safety Beach and Port Melbourne.

01:24We're really disappointed because it's really dry across the state at the moment, and we

01:28know from our friends at Fire Rescue Victoria that, in fact, they've had some fires started

01:32from fireworks over these last 24 hours.

01:36New Year celebrations were different this year for Apoorva Mali and Vivek Menon.

01:41At 1.20 this morning, their daughter Mariah was the first baby born for 2025.

01:46We got first of first, 2025, and we don't think there could be any better way to start

01:52your new year.

01:53A shared sense of new beginnings across the world.

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