I want to wish everyone out there a wonderful and prosperous 2020. May your hard work or just simple good fortune bring you joy and prosperity.

To all those battling the Australian bushfires either as volunteers or defending your homes, 2020 may start out rough but please stay strong and know our thoughts are with you.

There is so much polarised opinion about the bushfires, the lives lost and that we should have cancelled the Sydney fireworks as a mark of respect. So many opinions and points of view make it hard to have a balanced perspective. For us, entertaining international friends who’d been planning to see the Sydney fireworks as a watershed in their own story of loss, grief and renewal biased my opinion. I am so happy for them that they experienced Sydney’s amazing spectacle and I hope they can no move on with their own lives.

We met so many other international visitors here in Sydney and for them the fireworks were a very special part of their Australian adventures. We should never forget that our Australian generosity of spirit and our willingness to give in the face of hardship, extends internationally and binds us as a global community.

That said, as my token of respect for the the bushfires, the lives lost and those defending livelihoods this image is the anticipation of 2020 and the amazing spectacle of Sydney Harbour just moments before midnight.

May 2020 be an awesome year for you all.

… Robert Rath