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Sydney rings in New Year

Sydney Harbour has exploded with colour, light and music to the delight of revellers who crowded the foreshore to welcome 2017.

Crowds at Mrs Macquarie's Chair on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour
Excitement is in the air as more than a million people turn out to Sydney Harbour. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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Sydney has done what it does best on New Year's Eve with another dazzling pyrotechnics display to ring in 2017 after a year that many were happy to leave behind.

More than a million people squeezed along Sydney's foreshore on Saturday for a double bill of fireworks that climaxed with a midnight extravaganza that set the harbour ablaze with light and colour.

Fireworks enthusiasts and excited tourists from all over the world descended on Sydney for its biggest annual event.

Donna Bennett has spent the past 20 years watching the display on television from her home in England, but finally got the chance to experience it live on Saturday.

"You can't capture it on the screen, how it feels being surrounded by people from all over the world in this small area to watch the fireworks. It's brilliant," she said, sitting with several friends at Circular Quay.

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"It's been on my bucket list - it wasn't an 'if', it was always a 'when'."

A tribute to music legend Prince was a highlight of the night's entertainment, with purple rain showering the harbour and illuminating the bridge and cascades of golden waterfalls.

The two displays involved an estimated seven tonnes of fireworks, including 12,000 shells, 25,000 shooting comets and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.

In Melbourne the skies lit up in the city's greatest ever fireworks display.

The city skyline was crowned with a golden sparkle as explosives fired from an unprecedented 22 rooftops.

Almost half a million revellers crammed into the CBD to view the glittering $500,000 spectacular.


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