Warrnambool has lifted its reputation as one of the best places in regional Victoria for family-friendly New Year’s Eve fireworks with the shift in the fireworks venue to the Warrnambool breakwater, a council spokesman says.
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Warrnambool City Council’s visitor economy manager David McMahon said thousands of people gathered along the Lady Bay foreshore on Sunday night to watch the enhanced fireworks display which was shifted to the breakwater from its previous venue at Flagstaff Hill.
The shift made the fireworks much more accessible to the estimated 15,000 visitors staying in Warrnambool on New Year’s Eve, Mr McMahon said.
He said the council had received lots of positive feedback about the fireworks that had been upgraded in scale following a bigger investment in the event.
Mr McMahon said the increased scale of the show had meant the venue had to be moved away from Flagstaff Hill for safety reasons. Both the 9.30pm and midnight fireworks involved seven and a half to eight minute displays.
He said the breakwater car par park had been packed with vehicles and there had been people at vantage points along the entire stretch of the Lady Bay foreshore.
“You could see the camera flashes from the Pavilion right across to the Flume,” Mr McMahon said.
He said other New Year’s Eve activities at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village were also family-oriented and added to Warrnambool’s reputation as a very safe family destination for New Year’s Eve. Police had done a great job in ensuring good crowd behaviour in a friendly way, Mr McMahon said.
A review of the event would be held to determine whether the breakwater would again be used as the venue for future New Year’s Eve fireworks, he said.
While there were a handful of drunken people at the foreshore taken into custody, Warrnambool police said they had no problems with the change of venue for the fireworks.