New Year's Eve: Police praise behaviour of crowds as Australia rings in 2018

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Fireworks wow Sydney crowds (ABC News)

More than 1 million Sydneysiders and visitors from around Australia and across the globe descended on the Harbour foreshore to ring in the New Year, in a celebration hailed as an "fantastic success" by police praising the crowd's behaviour.

Key points: A man is in a serious condition after a firework exploded in his hand in Melbourne

Police say revellers were well behaved overall

Bad weather deterred crowds in Brisbane

About 1.6 million people attended the fireworks, where a rainbow waterfall off the Sydney Harbour Bridge celebrated the legalising of same-sex marriage.

Seven people were arrested for assaulting police, and another six arrests were made for a variety of offences, including offensive behaviour and affray.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton says the only downside was the use of illegal fireworks.

"One concern that remains is that right across Sydney we've had a number of unauthorised fireworks that have been let off. And unfortunately again this year we've had someone injured," he said.

But Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, a veteran of 15 New Year's Eve operations, said there had been a cultural shift.

"We aren't seeing the amount of alcohol consumption and anti-social behaviour that we used to years ago," he said.

Police also commended the behaviour of crowds in South Australia, where two people were arrested in Glenelg and Adelaide's CBD, and in Brisbane and Perth, where police said there were no major incidents.

Saint John Ambulance's Joel Moore said partygoers had stayed safe in Perth.

"The crowds were generally well behaved throughout the metro area," he said.

"We had a spike in work load in the city and the Armadale area, and overall there is a lot of people in those areas, and overall the crowds have been quite well behaved."

Police provided a strong presence in Fremantle, the CBD and at the Origin Music Festival.

In Canberra, thousands of people crowded into Civic from the early evening and cleaners this morning prepared to clear away up to 3,000 kilograms of rubbish mostly from bins set out for the night's celebrations.

Police made 238 arrests in Victoria, up 55 on the previous new year. They arrested 99 people for drunkenness, 23 for assault and 22 for drug offences.

Barge carrying fireworks catches fire off Terrigal beach

Meanwhile, not all fireworks displays went off without a hitch.

A 17-year-old boy on Sydney's northern beaches was taken to hospital after he suffered serious burns when unauthorised fireworks went off in Cromer Heights just before midnight, and a man suffered serious hand injuries when a firework he was holding exploded in Melbourne's west.

Police said the 34-year-old was injured in the accident at around 10:30pm in Caroline Springs.

He was taken to hospital in a serious condition and police are continuing investigations into the incident.

A 42-year-old man from Brunswick West also injured his hand while lighting an illegal firework, and a third man, in his 30s, suffered burns after a firework exploded in his face at Melton shortly before 12:30am.

He was flown to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Fireworks spray into Terrigal beach crowd (ABC News)

Crowds who had flocked to see the New Years Eve fireworks at Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast got more than they bargained for when the display malfunctioned, causing the fireworks to go off all at once.

Hundreds of people gathered on the beach had to be evacuated, and the two men operating the fireworks display from a barge had to jump into the water to escape the explosions.

They were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Footage on social media shows the out of control fireworks, with people heard screaming and commenting that it "didn't look like part of the show".

Topics: event, carnivals-and-festivals, australia

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