Committee for Lorne: New Year’s Eve Fireworks Are Back!

(As Long as We Get Your Support 🙏🙏)

The plan is, that on 31 December 2023, the New Year’s Eve Fireworks will be back in Lorne after an absence of a few years.  Would you like to have fireworks off the end of the Pier at 9pm and midnight?

This project is a joint initiative of the Committee for Lorne (CfL) and the Lorne Business and Tourism Association (LBTA).  Everyone misses the Fireworks, but it wasn’t until the Chairman of Committee for Lorne, John Higgins published his ‘wish list’ in his column back in August with one of his Christmas wishes being the return of the Fireworks, that people started to ask the question, “how do we make this happen?”

Historically, the Fireworks were arranged by the Lorne Chamber of Commerce, the predecessor to the Lorne Business and Tourism Association.  Back in December 1973, the local paper, the “Lorne News reported, “The Chamber intends to stage another display of fireworks on the foreshore this coming New Year’s Eve.  It will be a longer and more spectacular show than the one staged last year, and the Chamber hopes that it will give visitors to Lorne something to look forward to and enjoy, rather than having them on the street making their own entertainment.  This has, in past years, led to the destruction of plate glass and other property.  The cost of the fireworks will be $600, and the Chamber is calling for donations to help defray this expense.  Anyone interested in improving Lorne’s reputation as the place to visit on New Year’s Eve can leave a donation with Mrs Orr, Smith Street, or with Jack Carroll.”

This practice continued for many years and subsequently, Surf Coast Shire staged the fireworks for a number of years but decided to stop about three years ago because of rising costs.  The Shire stated that the cost of the event including fireworks and security was in excess of $50,000.  

So now the wheel has turned full circle and local community organisations, CfL and LBTA are working together to stage fireworks on New Year’s Eve again.

The first hurdle was to identify someone who was appropriately qualified to source fireworks and stage such an event.  That’s done. TICK!

Then we needed to approach the Great Ocean Road Coast and Park Authority (GORCAPA) to see if firstly, they would be supportive of the initiative and secondly, would they issue the relevant permit.  The safest and most visible location from which to launch the fireworks is from the end of the Pier, over the water, as has happened previously.  We made a direct approach to the CEO, Jodie Sizer who asked for a couple of days to do some research.  True to her word, she contacted us a couple of days later to say GORCAPA was supportive and then we received an email saying that, “We’ve discussed the proposal for Lorne fireworks and would like to support the re-commencing of this event in Lorne for 2023 by waiving the permit fee and providing in-kind support for the Lorne pier close etc. as needed.”  Good on you GORCAPA, we couldn’t have asked for more!  TICK!

In order to fund the event, we are reaching out to businesses in Lorne and to the wider community to help fund this event.  We want to have two sets of fireworks, one at 9pm for the younger members of our community and other members who are unlikely to be playing on till midnight and another event at midnight for those celebrating the “ticking over” to the New Year.

To have enough funds for two fireworks events of about 12 minutes each, we need about $20,000.  Already, we have received strong support from the business community, but we need more.  So, we have set up a Go Fund Me project so that everyone in the community, if they wish, can contribute to make this plan for Fireworks on New Year’s Eve a reality.

You can scan the QR Code on this page with the camera on your phone and it will open up the page where you can make a donation.  Alternatively, you can visit the GoFundMe page directly with the following link – https://tinyurl.com/lorne-fireworks.

So if you want New Year’s Eve to be like the good old days with a major spectacle of fireworks and lots of “oooh’s and aaah’s, please support this fundraising project.  Lorne always digs deep for a good cause and hopefully this project will continue the tradition.

Pete Spring

Committee for Lorne

 

 

A word from the Chairman