As always, Mother Nature wasn't pulling any punches in 2021.
From spectacular volcanic eruptions to floods...
Oh, my God.
..and heatwaves.
And let's not forget the occasional Aussie tornado...
There goes the roof of our house.
..a troublesome mouse plague...
Mouse, mouse, mouse.
..oh, and an earthquake
that no-one in Melbourne was prepared for.
What's that shaking?
Get out of the house!
Winning, winning...
In the tricky world of politics, there were also a few big shake-ups.
Today, we mark the swearing-in
of the first woman in American history
elected to national office,
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Of course, not everyone agreed with how things turned out,
and in the US, a crowd of protesters stormed the Capitol.
World leaders got together, well, mostly online.
Next time, I hope we get to do it face to face like we used to.
Good morning.
Well, that's good morning to me. It looks...
I don't know what time of day it is to you.
Mr Prime Minister, I'm not sure we're hearing you.
But even in person, things didn't always go smoothly.
JOURNALIST: Do you think he lied to you?
I don't think - I know.
For people in some places, life took a real turn.
There was a military coup in Myanmar...
(PROTESTER SHOUTS IN OWN LANGUAGE)
..intense fighting between Israelis and Palestinians...
Fighting must stop.
..and the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
I hope that there's no more war, there's no bombing,
there's no shooting, there's no killing,
there's no anything there.
It's just going to the shops and just getting whatever you need
and just coming home safe.
In Australia, we sometimes found it tough to keep up with news.
What?!
But when the Olympics were finally on,
you couldn't drag us away from our screens.
You can't show this.
Even if it was just to see Jack show us this.
You can't show this.
Well, what can we show?
This?
Wow.
This royal walked away from the job he was born into.
My father and my brother, they are trapped,
trapped within the system.
And thousands of Aussies walked together to demand equality...
I think the women should have the same respect
and the same power as men do.
PROTESTER: (SHOUTS) What do we want?
..and to once again call for action on climate change.
PROTESTERS: Our future is worth more than money!
It's a topic this activist had plenty to say about.
A two-week long celebration of business as usual
and blah, blah, blah.
(CHEERING)
And so did world leaders
as they tried to work out how to save our planet.
We need real action during this decade now.
There's no more time to hang back.
It's time to say enough.
Meanwhile, others focused their attention on leaving Earth.
JEFF BEZOS: Best day ever!
Two billionaires took tourists into space
for a view they'll never forget.
On how it felt, oh, my God! (LAUGHTER)
And a few countries set their sights
on somewhere much, much further away.
TRANSLATOR: We've been waiting for the landing since yesterday morning.
We've been on edge and I've only slept an hour.
WOMAN: (OVER RADIO) Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars.
I got a phone call from the president of the United States
and his first words were, "Congratulations, man."
And I knew it was him. I wasn't getting punked.
And with that, let's say goodbye to another year of big news.