GorgeousrattyJan 1, 2023

I’m really surprised there hasn’t been more news about the chaotic end to the Sydney Fireworks last night. It was dangerous and not ok.

If you know a million people will be at the fireworks, you also know you have a million people to get home. Don’t leave the only exit, the train stations, to half a dozen haphazardly placed cops and one exhausted & desperate railway worker with a budget megaphone to try to control this tidal wave of humanity.

#SydneyNYE #SydneyFireworks

Show threadrustyJan 1, 2023
@gorgeousratty what happened?
Show threadGorgeousrattyJan 1, 2023

@mativity roads were closed so the only way out was by train or bus (from QVB - so 1.5km from Circular Quay).

First 3 stations closed or full.

Central Stn had a row of about 6 police letting v. small numbers of people into the bottlenecked station entrance, so people were squeezed together surging forward every time any number of people were allowed through, up steps, over collapsed barriers.

It was pretty scary.

Show threadGorgeousrattyJan 1, 2023

@mativity Central Stn is 2.5km from Circular Quay, which is quite a long way for the remaining 900,000 people to walk after midnight. (And after waiting for hours and hours for the fireworks to start)

And then to wait in a massive block of people that went for hundreds of metres down the road. With 6 police officers holding the fort.

Show threadDr Mark ButlerJan 1, 2023
@gorgeousratty @mativity yes, we walked an hour in that crowd and it was really difficult. There have been times in my life when that crowd would have made me panic. That long walk made my osteoarthritis flare up too.
Show threadrustyJan 1, 2023
@mental @gorgeousratty sounds like a depressing way to end the night. As Ratty said, thats a long walk at the end of a long evening!
Show threadGorgeousratty

@mental @mativity I think the crowd on the whole was amazingly well behaved. And I think I wasn’t the only one thinking about South Korea at that moment. But any group of people has a certain number of idiots and it wouldn’t have taken much to have ended in disaster.

Husband said there was a really large bloke near him in the crowd at Central whose friends were egging him on, saying “Push! Push! Push!” And he did.

Jan 1, 2023 at 5:48amWeb
Show threadDr Mark ButlerJan 1, 2023
@gorgeousratty @mativity yes, totally. I had some drunk teen boys chat randomly to me a few times and they were super polite and happy. We could have all been angry but people were chilled. The only angry faces I saw were from a small portion of the police.
Show threadrustyJan 1, 2023
@mental @gorgeousratty But setting off your osteoarthritis. I have problem feet which need careful management - - I can relate to that literally being a pain.
Show threadGorgeousrattyJan 1, 2023
@mativity @mental did you go past Town Hall with that one single worker sounding exasperated as she had to repeat that Town Hall was closed and everyone had to go to Central?
Show threadrustyJan 1, 2023
@gorgeousratty @mental Idiots.
Show threadGorgeousrattyJan 1, 2023
@mativity @mental and the thing is if no one makes a fuss and the media doesn’t cover it, how do they improve next year? They have been doing this for years. If they don’t know how to do it yet, without any pressure, how will they ever?