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Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.

© Kath Hobson

G'day All,

This month I thought we would continue with the New Year Celebrations. Here in Australia, as you may have seen on the Television we saw in the New Year much as the rest of the world did. Lots of celebrations, lots of partying, lots of noise, tons of fireworks and practically no problems from that pesky little Y2K Bug. In fact I happen to think that the final fireworks display from the Sydney Harbour Bridge was one of the most spectacular displays, just topped by those in France at the Eiffel Tower, hey but that's just my opinion.

However, a newspaper article here in the Herald Sun, Melbourne's daily paper, quoted an article from the British tabloids, which actually voted Sydney's fireworks and New Year's celebrations as the best in the world. So perhaps it's NOT just my opinion after all!

Anyway this month I thought we would visit the tiny outback town, and I use the term town VERY loosely here, of Cameron's Corner. Cameron's Corner is your typical one horse town, in fact I think even that description is an exaggeration. To be more precise Cameron's Corner is one of the "blink and you'll miss it" town varieties. In fact it isn't really a town at all. It doesn't have a main road and there is only one building there, the General Store/Pub. Population FOUR, the owner his wife and two daughters.

However for all its size, or lack there of, Cameron's Corner played a very important part in this years New Years celebrations. It was the only place in Australia where you could officially celebrate the New Year three times. This is because Cameron's Corner has the unique location of being smack dab on the border of three states and thus encompasses three time zones.

On New Years Eve the local population swelled by over 620%, when 250 people descended on the tiny outback location. Luckily the locals had been expecting this influx of visitors and so there was no chance of the pub at Cameron's Corner becoming the "pub with no beer".

Cameron's Corner is located where the borders of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland meet, in the middle of nowhere and is surrounded by spinefix and red dust. The exact spot of the meeting of the three state borders is topped by a post. The locals decided that everyone would want to sit on top of that post at midnight, so to prevent any arguments they decided to auction the post with all monies raised to be donated to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Which is a vital service for such lonely communities as well as travelers in the outback.

The copyright of the article Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. in Australia/South Pacific is owned by Kath Hobson. Permission to republish Happy New Year, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.