Australian revellers saw in the New Year with the usual explosion of fireworks and popping of champagne corks, but the weather had a say in many celebrations.
While Sydney basked in perfect conditions and again turned on a fireworks display to mesmerise the world, Queensland and northern NSW battened down against wild winds and Melbourne's extreme heat had revellers heading for the beaches.
Adelaide and Darwin also sweltered in plus-30 degree temperatures, but Perth enjoyed a welcome 25-degrees after its Boxing Day all-time December high of 44.3 degrees.
Sydney's harbourside partygoers this year witnessed a display that had been billed as the world's biggest ever fireworks show.
It did not disappoint the million or more people who lined the foreshores and broke into cheers as the harbour erupted with its traditional midnight extravaganza.
More than 20,000 shells and shooting comets were launched from the Harbour Bridge, from seven floating barges and from the rooftops of eight buildings in the CBD.
The 12-minute spectacle is considered one of the best in the world and attracts more people on New Year's Eve than even Times Square in New York.
This year's theme, Time of Our Lives, was represented by an illuminated, rotating hour glass on the bridge measuring 36 square metres.
People from all over the country and the world staked their claims at the 40 official vantage points.
But many hoping to get a spot later in the day were locked out as sites reached capacity by 6pm.
Opera Bar manager John Gallas said it was the best New Year's Eve he has witnessed.
"It's been a full house here, we haven't stopped, people are ecstatic."
But a number of accidents and injuries marred the night.
An ambulance spokeswoman said crews had responded to 150 triple-O calls before midnight in Sydney and over 80 calls across rural NSW.
Among the seriously injured was a man stabbed in Sydney's city centre during the height of the celebrations, a girl who fell 10 metres in North Sydney and a person aboard a boat that was involved in a collision at Jerusalem Bay, north of Sydney.
At Bondi Beach, a man was impaled on a fence and there are fears for an intoxicated male who went swimming at Harbord, on Sydney's northern beaches, and has not been seen since.
In Melbourne, 41 degree Celsius heat kept crowds down at the fireworks spectacular in Melbourne's city centre, as hundreds of thousands of revellers headed for the beaches.
But the city was still abuzz, with a huge crowd lining the banks of the Yarra River to take in the 15 minute-burst.
Police reported no major incidents in the city centre or popular coastal spots, after a police dispute threatened to leave tens of thousands of Victorian New Year's Eve revellers at the mercy of violent troublemakers.
The Police Association had planned to boycott intervention in a possible repeat of violent outbreaks in the popular Mornington Peninsula town of Rye unless force command provided riot helmets.
The dispute was resolved at the eleventh hour.
Brisbane crowds were also lower than usual and organisers put fireworks displays on hold because of the heavy wind and rain that forced the cancellation of other events along the Queensland coast.
But both the city's scheduled 9pm (AEST) and midnight displays went ahead, after the decision on a go-ahead was left until five minutes before the scheduled start.
A South Banks spokeswoman said about 35,000 had turned up, compared with crowds of up to 100,000 in past years.
"The weather hasn't stopped a festive atmosphere," she said. "As far as I can see, everyone's in the New Year spirit."
The bad weather had already forced the cancellation of fireworks on the Gold Coast, with an esplanade party at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast also abandoned.
Police in Adelaide, Hobart, Perth and Darwin reported quiet New Year's Eves, with few incidents.