‘It’ll fill the city skyline’: How Rusty conducts an explosive symphony

Talking points

• 450,000 people are expected to attend the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations this year.
• Fireworks will be launched from 30 rooftops across the CBD, up from 22 last year. 
• The $3.94 million party includes $280,000 for fireworks, and setting up ‘celebration zones’ and safety measures.
• Seven kilometres of fencing has been erected to help manage crowds in key CBD areas.
• An additional 2500 police officers will be on duty.

Rusty Johnson’s approach to fireworks has always been to go “bigger and better”.

His career as a high school art teacher took an unexpected turn when he helped organise Langwarrin Secondary College’s entry into the Rock Eisteddfod dance competition around 20 years ago.

“I started to say, why don’t we put some pyro in it?” he said. “Then I had to go and get a licence to do it.”

Rusty Johnson says the seven-month logistical operation will deliver the biggest and brightest fireworks show Melbourne has ever seen. Credit:Chris Hopkins

That led Johnson to starting a small business doing fireworks displays at school fairs, until he was headhunted by the country’s biggest fireworks company, Howard & Sons.

The City of Melbourne expects up to 450,000 people will pack the CBD on Saturday night to watch its first New Year’s Eve fireworks display since the pandemic. Johnson is running the show and, true to form, has promised it will be the biggest yet.

He’s installed a 20-tonne arsenal around the city – six tonnes more than in 2019. Nearly 25,000 individual rockets will launch off 30 CBD rooftops (eight more than ever before) and from five ground sites at 9.30pm and midnight.

“It’ll fill the city skyline … we want people to see it from outside the city,” Johnson said. “Because we’ve got the extra rooftops it’s bigger and it’s wider. But logistically that becomes huge.”

Revellers watch the 2019 New Year’s Eve fireworks from Flinders Street.Credit:Chris Hopkins

Johnson has worked on the Melbourne show since 2007, but he said the two-year hiatus meant his team had to “go back right back to scratch”, now that taller buildings have overshadowed some of their previous launch sites.

Planning started in May. The first step was to commission Mike Katz, better known as the ARIA-nominated musician Harvey Sutherland, to splice together an eight-minute soundtrack.

Pyrotechnics designer Stuart Bensley used that to choreograph the series of colourful explosions, which he said took on the music’s rhythm and “narrative” – even for spectators who won’t hear the songs they mimic.

“Each song in the mix has its own colour palette, its own effects and tableau, its own little creative identity,” Bensley said.

Pyrotechnicians prepare the fireworks for Melbourne’s New Year’s Eve display in the Kings Domain.Credit:Chris Hopkins

After writing out timing notes to the music on paper, Bensley moved to a computer program to plot out the show in full, deciding each rocket’s size, colour and shape based on the physical and safety limitations of the launch sites.

“If you’re out of the city, you’ll see the true show in its fullness,” he said. “It’s like a symphony, where you’ve got this massive cast of instruments. Each one’s a little bit different but when they all play together, it’s making music.”

From there, the plan was handed over to Johnson to execute with military-style precision. Hundreds of pages of instructions and diagrams were printed and carefully followed by the 75 professionals who have connected the rockets to a system that will trigger 10,500 sequenced ignitions.

Safety is paramount, given the fireworks are packed with around 4 tonnes of gunpowder – more than the estimated 2.5 tonnes Guy Fawkes nearly reduced the House of Lords to rubble with in 1605.

Registered explosive transport vehicles brought them from NSW to a guarded warehouse in an undisclosed location in Melbourne. From there, crews split them into smaller lots to move around the city safely.

Johnson said the basics of fireworks “hasn’t really changed over hundreds and hundreds of years”.

An initial lift charge shoots the largest shells up to 200 metres in the air before igniting a gunpowder payload which releases smaller globs of explosive material rolled into balls with coloured chemicals.

New Year’s Eve fireworks illuminate the sky above Federation Square in 2018.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

By packing the globs into the shell in careful patterns, they release incandescent waterfalls, comets, chrysanthemums or peonies in the night sky as they burn through different layers of colour.

“What has changed is an improvement in chemicals, so we get better, more pure colours now,” Johnson said.

“And the biggest improvement in fireworks is the electronics – that’s what enables us to fire from 30 positions across the city simultaneously.”

City of Melbourne mayor Sally Capp said that “wherever you can see the city skyline, you’ll be able to see our fireworks”.

“This is the New Year’s Eve we have all been waiting for,” she said.

“This year, we can literally have a brilliant time on New Year’s Eve. We know that [COVID-19] anxiety is really reduced. We ask people to continue to be safe around COVID issues … but I think there’s going to be a sense of exuberance this year as people return.”

The council has set up free “celebration zones” at Docklands, Flagstaff Gardens, Kings Domain and Treasury Gardens, for viewing the family-friendly 9.30pm fireworks, with food, performances and music.

Public transport is free on Saturday, however Parliament, Flagstaff and Melbourne Central stations on the City Loop will close at 11.45pm.

Emergency services have prepared for the influx of people, with uniformed and plain-clothed officers due to carry out extra patrols throughout the night, as well as additional wardens, and security guards.

Seven kilometres of fencing has been erected to help manage crowds in key CBD areas.

Victoria Police deputy commissioner Rick Nugent said police would be “very active and very visible” across both city and regional areas.

Ambulance Victoria has arranged for additional ambulance paramedics, bike crews, and motorcycle crews across the state, but still urged people to save triple-zero for emergencies, and to ensure that if they choose to drink alcohol, they do so responsibly.

CBD fireworks displays

9.30pm: Family-friendly fireworks will be visible from free and non-ticketed celebration zones at Docklands, Flagstaff Gardens, Treasury Gardens, and near the Shrine of Remembrance.

Midnight: Fireworks launching from 30 rooftops across the CBD. These should be visible from anywhere within sight of the city skyline.

Family-friendly fireworks around Victoria

9.20pm: Dandenong Park

9.30pm: Footscray Park

9.30pm: Geelong Waterfront

9.30pm: Portarlington

How to get there

• All public transport – including trams, trains, and buses – will be free of charge from 6pm on New Year’s Eve to 6am on New Year’s Day.
• The CityLoop will be closed after 11.45pm on New Year’s Eve, meaning all train services after this time will operate from Flinders Street Station.
• You will not need to use a Myki to travel between these times. If you do, your card will not be charged.
• Services of all modes will continue to run throughout the night and into the morning. More than 300 extra train services will run overnight.
• From midnight through to 1.45am, trains will run at five to 15-minute intervals, moving to a 30-minute frequency until 2.45am. They will then run hourly through to the first service on New Year’s morning.
• Trams will operate at a five to 15-minute intervals through to 3am, followed by the night network which will operate as usual.
• Regional services will operate as normal on a Saturday night timetable, moving through to the night network coach services that will run into the morning.
• On VLine, the first train service out of Southern Cross on New Year’s morning will be free.

Road closures

• Many city streets will be blocked off, including parts of major thoroughfares like Swanston Street, Flinders Street, and Birdwood Avenue.
• You can read a full list of road closures here.

with Nell Geraets

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