It was watching the Bendigo Easter Parade as a child that Peter Daley first fell in love with fireworks.
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“I used to stand at the fair and watch the kids throwing the crackers,” the man behind tonight’s New Year’s firework display said.
Mr Daley has now been working in the pyrotechnic industry for more than 20 years, but his passion for the craft is yet to dim.
“They're very spectacular, they're noisy, they're something we don't see every day,” he said when asked what drew him to fireworks.
“The applause and the cheers we get at the end of a show when the families say, 'Thanks that was great', is what makes it worthwhile.”
Plans for this year’s New Year’s Eve display began as early as September when Mr Daley attended an industry convention in the Australian Capital Territory, a chance for manufacturers to show off the biggest new bangs in their collection.
Armed with an updated bag of tricks – watch for his new favourite, a firework called the ‘cherry blossom’, during the finale of tonight’s show – he gets to ordering in October and wiring up the site in December.
Aiming sky-high
Topping the previous year’s display is an annual challenge.
“I always have the motto ‘you're only as good as your last show’,” Mr Daley said, lauding the addition of children’s fireworks on New Year’s Eve as an exciting way to provide more entertainment.
Technological advances also helped the pyrotechnician offer more spectacular displays.
This year’s show is his fifth computer-operated New Year’s display, a move the man said gave him more control over the fireworks.
A recent crackdown on quality inside Chinese firework factories also gave operators greater certainty about the products they used.
Mr Daley was aware of, but unperturbed by, people who talked down the merit of fireworks.
Pet owners worried for their animals’ welfare had ample warning to secure pets, he said.
What did frustrate him, however, was when people illegally set off crackers, smearing the good name of licensed operators.
“They're the ones that cause us the trouble,” Mr Daley said. “A lot of people don’t know what they’re using, what they’re controlling.”