We’ve just had a quiet King’s birthday long weekend (due to the absence of fireworks that once exploded in the ACT before the 2009 ban) but take heart Canberra, Gunning Fireworks Festival will return this September after a five-year-hiatus.
The festival, run by Fireworks Australia, promises one of the largest fireworks finales outside of Sydney. The event started out in 1999 as a demonstration for pyrotechnicians but the public soon flocked to Gunning in their thousands (10,000 in 2009).
Fireworks Australia director Martin Brady said the public festival had run for almost 20 years but due to costs, was cancelled in 2020. He said this year’s event would make up for it.
“This thing is full tilt,” Martin said. “We’ll still do the demonstrations but the change this year is we’re going to do two fireworks shows set to music, a kid-themed one and a rock-and-roll one for the adults. It’ll be epic and it’ll involve propane flames, sparks, fireworks, possibly lasers.”
For pyrotechnicians, there will be a one-hour demonstration of fireworks, which are ignited one by one to demonstrate the effects to industry professionals from all over Australia and New Zealand. (The price for 300 shots built into one piece is about $600). There are no firework sales available to the public.
Martin said he missed the days when fireworks could still be purchased in the ACT.
“In 2006, we made the equivalent of 136,000 sales in the ACT,” he said. “Just from the sales data, the majority of people in Canberra were buying fireworks.”
The only other place in Australia where the public can legally buy fireworks is Tasmania and the Northern Territory, where Martin is headed now to supply fireworks to celebrate Territory Day on 1st July.
“Our company is a specialist importer and we organise fireworks to go to the islands – such as Groote Island – and out to Katherine and Alice Springs,” Martin said. “I have about 60 or 70 destinations in the NT that we send fireworks to.”
Fireworks are a 2000-year-old art form but Martin said there were always new innovations.
The latest feature is a “ghost effect”, where each individual burning star lights at different times, giving the effect that it’s moving.
“The fireworks are dynamic and the quality is significantly better than last year in the colours,” Martin said.
Another new firework innovation is individual hand-rolled fireworks.
“It looks like a star is moving around in a circle but actually what’s happening is they’re all lighting at different times so it’s very clever,” Martin said. “Patterns will form and a colour wave will go through them.”
The most exciting innovation is an environmental one. Firework casings, which were traditionally made of cardboard and chemicals from fireworks residue, are now biodegradable.
The casings are made in China from rice husks and return to organic material in landfill. The new casing also allows pyrotechnicians to use half as much powder to launch the fireworks.
Fireworks Australia is based at Gundaroo and provides fireworks for Canberra’s New Year’s Eve display and Summernats. Martin said he was eternally grateful to Gunning residents, who allow the influx of visitors and loud fireworks displays.
Gunning Fireworks Festival is 7 September. Entry donation goes to NSW Rural Fire Service. Information: https://www.gunningfireworksfestival.com.au/Events.htm
