2000 Today (ABC Australia): Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart Midnight

First of the Australian midnight celebrations for the Australian Eastern Daylight Time Zone (AEDT, UTC + 1100) by ABC Australia as part of the international broadcast of '2000 Today' which involved segments from over 60 countries worldwide. The ABC was the Australian broadcaster, which provided several segments for the international broadcast. The program was an international consortium led by the BBC in the United Kingdom and WGBH in the United States. This section crosses to the main midnight celebrations on AEDT -- Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart. Sydney's celebration focused on fireworks around Sydney Harbour and Harbour Bridge while the Melbourne celebration was a fireworks display along the Yarra near the CBD. Canberra's celebration was a fireworks display around Lake Burley Griffin and Hobart's was on the River Derwent. Queensland does not observe daylight saving and its midnight was an hour behind -- and in fact half an hour behind Adelaide which is on Australian Central Daylight Time (ACDT) This segment begins with crosses for the ABC broadcast to Melbourne (Derek Guille) and Sydney ('Roy and HG' -- Greig Pickhaver and John Doyle) before crossing to the midnight celebration as part of the international broadcast. Hosts for this part were then ex-Foreign Correspondent host George Negus and ABC journalist Maxine McKew. McKew would later contest the 2007 Federal Election for the ALP in the Division of Bennelong in Sydney for the ALP against long-incumbent Liberal Prime Minister John Howard. Labor won the seat and the election making John Howard the second Prime Minister in Australia's history to lose his seat at an election. McKew's time in office as the Member for Bennelong would be short lived as it was regained by the Liberal Party at the 2010 Election by candidate and former tennis player John Alexander. Hosts of the ABC broadcast of 2000 Today were as follows with approximate times in AEDT (UTC + 1100) which commenced at 8.30PM on December 31 2030 -- 0030 George Negus 2300 -- 0200 Maxine McKew 0130 -- 0515 Deborah Kennedy 0300 -- 0430 Mike Bailey 0500 -- 0730 George Negus 0520 -- 0730 Andrea Stretton 0730 -- 1030 Caroline Baum 0730 -- 1030 John Lombard 1030 -- 1230 Jennifer Byrne 1145 -- 1350 James O'Loghlin 1230 -- 1400 Peter Thompson 1350 -- 1615 George Negus 1440 -- 1540 Daniel Marsden 1615 -- 1820 Peter Thompson 1615 -- 1905 Kathy Bowlen (ABC NEWS BULLETIN TO 1930) 1930 -- 2200 George Negus 2030 -- 2115 Kathy Bowlen Short appearances were also made by film director Bruce Beresford, veteran ABC newsreader James Dibble and future Media Watch host Paul Barry. This segment was recorded on VHS tape from an over-the-air broadcast from ABV-2 Melbourne on Friday December 31, 1999 - Saturday January 1, 2000.