Sydney's modern large-scale New Year's Eve fireworks tradition began in 1976.
The 1976 celebration marked the start of the annual fireworks tradition associated with Sydney Harbour. The event helped establish the harbour, the Sydney Opera House, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as an internationally recognizable New Year's Eve setting.
Sydney's location near the International Date Line means its midnight celebration is among the first major televised New Year events watched around the world. The program usually includes an earlier family fireworks display and a larger midnight show, although exact schedules and elements can change from year to year.
The fireworks are launched from multiple points, including the Harbour Bridge and barges on the harbour. The famous bridge effect, often called the “bridge effect,” has featured changing designs and symbols. Sydney's celebration is frequently described as one of the world's largest, but crowd sizes and fireworks quantities vary by year, so those claims should not be treated as a fixed annual number.