Australians toast to the new year 02/01/04 : AAP/The Age

[Caroline]

Australians toast to the new year
January 2, 2005 - 2:32AM

The Sydney "disco ball" didn't quite work, a woman fell through a pub floor and a man plunged down a mineshaft - but this new year's celebrations will be best remembered for the way Australians emptied their pockets for the tsunami victims.

With the death toll from horror Sunday approaching 150,000, a nation-wide appeal for donations from Community Aid Abroad Oxfam Australia netted up to $1.5 million in just one night.

It was also a night in which police arrests country-wide were unremarkable - 57 in South Australia, 13 in Tasmania, 85 in inner-Sydney and 136 along the coast of Queensland.

Victorian police recorded 865 offences throughout the night.

Despite the sombre mood brought on by the shadow of wreckage stretching from east Asia, half a million people turned out to watch the fireworks around Sydney harbour.

Some 400,000 trekked in to Melbourne city to see their show.

Sydneysiders were left hanging after being promised a spectacular display with a "disco ball" reflecting shafts of light across the harbour.

According to event organisers, a lack of wind meant the smoke from fireworks lingered in the air, blocking the refraction.

"We had this funny relationship with the wind where we're usually worried it's going to be a little too windy, but (there was) not enough wind last night to get rid of some of the smoke at midnight," Sydney producer Ed Wilkinson said.

"But if you hung around for ten minutes you would have seen how beautiful it was," he said.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the evening was a success.

"I thought it struck a really nice balance between welcoming in the New Year ... and also offering practical help to those devastated communities," Ms Moore said.

The City of Sydney officially backed the Oxfam appeal and called on revellers to observe a minute's silence at 9pm (AEDT) to remember the dead and injured in the tsunamis.

Last night's takings bring the aid organisation's total collection since the Boxing Day tidal waves to around $7 million.

The number of Australians dead in the catastrophe stands at 11, with grave concerns held for at least another 107.

Public policy director for Oxfam Australia James Ensor said the money raised will go to providing clean drinking water, toilets, blankets, and food to the millions of people left homeless, hungry and injured by the disaster.

"At the moment, our emphasis is on providing life-saving basic necessities for people - clean water, sanitation, shelter, things like plastic sheetings, mosquito nets, temporary toilets and food," Mr Ensor said.

"The challenges are enormous, particularly in Aceh, (and) getting access to affected communities is problematic."

Aid organisations and relief workers are now turning their attention to preventing the spread of disease and starvation.

As 2004 ticked over into 2005, the thoughts of Australians were with the victims.

One new year's eve Lotto winner based in Sydney has even promised to donate part of her takings to the biggest relief effort ever mounted.

The 55-year-old grandmother of 12 said some of the $574,000 she won would go to the victims across east Asia.

"I cannot believe how terrible it is over there. We're really simple people and, to be honest, I wouldn't know what to do with the money," she said.

- AAP