Community update: preparation for Australia Day fireworks
Wollongong City Council is looking forward to welcoming our community to the Wollongong Harbour precinct for Australia Day activities, including the scheduled 9pm fireworks display.
Following the cancellation of the 2025 New Year’s Eve fireworks due to large ocean swells, Council reviewed potential firing locations for the upcoming 26 January fireworks.
Over many years Wollongong Harbour’s southern breakwall has consistently been assessed and identified as the most suitable firing location for fireworks displays. It offers a wide range of excellent viewing points and allows us to safely manage and implement road closures, exclusion zones, and crowd control measures with minimal disruption.
In more than 20 years of using the southern breakwall as a firing point, 31 December was the first time* ocean swells have necessitated the cancellation of a planned fireworks display.
Based on the long history of successful shows and the advantages it provides, the southern breakwall will remain the preferred location for the Australia Day fireworks this year.
Following the New Year’s Eve cancellation, Council has also reassessed potential back-up locations. As a result, we’ve attained necessary approvals or Flagstaff Hill to be an alternate firing location on 26 January, should the breakwall become unsuitable.
While this gives us an alternate location, it’s important to understand that Flagstaff Hill has its own site constraints and considerations, including the possibility of adverse weather conditions we’ll be monitoring closely.
Moving fireworks displays of this scale is a complex process. It requires considerable planning and implementation – including changes to rigging of fireworks, updates to risk assessments and licence approvals, establishment of new exclusion zones, revised road closures, and updated crowd management plans.
These steps typically require 24 hours’ notice to be successfully and safely implemented. This means, even with an alternate location in place, it is unlikely the New Year's Eve fireworks would have proceeded given the conditions on the day and required approvals.
Council will continue reviewing alternate fireworks locations for future events. We are also seeking independent expert advice to support development of a more robust framework regarding weather and ocean swell forecasts to further strengthen our planning and decision-making.
The Australia Day fireworks will include a small number of additional fireworks salvaged from the planned New Year’s Eve display.
*Note fireworks were cancelled in 2019 due to bushfires and extreme weather resulting in a total fire ban that included fireworks
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