Sydney Harbour has been set ablaze with light, colour and music as another dazzling fireworks display thrilled capacity crowds from around the world and marked the arrival of 2017.
After a year that many were happy to leave behind, an estimated 1.5 million people packed the foreshore on Saturday for a double bill of fireworks climaxing with the world famous midnight pyrotechnics extravaganza.
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Sydneys dazzling NYE fireworks extravangaza
Sydney has done what it does best on New Year's Eve with another amazing pyrotechnics display to ring in 2017 after a year that many were happy to leave behind. Vision courtesy ABC
The two displays comprised an estimated seven tonnes of fireworks, including 12,000 shells, 25,000 shooting comets and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.
Spectators gasped and cheered throughout the $7 million 9pm and midnight shows and embraced each other with wishes of "happy new year!"
A collective "whoo" could be heard with each new burst of colour and light.
Tributes to music legends Prince and David Bowie were a highlight of the night's entertainment, with purple rain showering the harbour and illuminating the bridge and a constellation of space-inspired pyrotechnics.
The loudest applause came at the end when a golden waterfall cascaded from the bridge to the water below.
Chilean student Felipe Ortega told AAP he couldn't believe he was in Sydney to see a show he usually watched on TV back home.
![Sydney Harbour is set ablaze with light and colour as the city rings in 2017 with a bang.](/web/20161231170139im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/k/b/c/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtkarn.png/1483194159808.jpg)
His friend, Columbian Jenny Ruiz, said coming to the Opera House to celebrate the new year was mandatory while in Australia.
"It's a must-see. It's an icon," she said.
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.
Among them was Emma Eastick, of Pakenham, who ventured into the CBD for New Year's Eve for the first time, with her parents visiting from the UK, her husband and two children.
"It's just to see the big fantastic fireworks live, rather than on the TV," she said.
Extra police are on the beat in the CBD and across Victoria, with operations bolstered by a new 24/7 monitoring centre feeding in live CCTV footage and intelligence.
Around 200,000 people packed into South Bank in Brisbane to watch the fireworks at 8.30pm, enjoying what fireworks designer Max Brunner described as "probably the best weather we've had in 10 years for New Year's Eve".
In Adelaide thousands of Big Bash League fans spilled over for the night's festivities at Elder Park.
Aussie Music Icons Diesel and Kate Ceberano sparked up the crowd at Darwin's waterfront, and Canberrans enjoed a family friendly concert at Civic Square and 9pm fireworks with a dance party for the grown-ups after midnight.
West Australians were the last to ring in the new year after some 20,000 have kicked off festivities at the annual Perth Cup at Ascot Racecourse.
AAP