Children's comic inspired Thompson's NYE

A six-year-old, hurtling through the Sydney streets in his billy cart, is the unlikely inspiration behind this year's New Year's Eve fireworks display.

Fatty Finn, the leader of a gang of Woolloomooloo children in the 1927 black-and-white silent film, The Kid Stakes, inspired actor Jack Thompson's in his role as creative ambassador for the Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks.

Thompson, a self-proclaimed son of Sydney known for his roles in Breaker Morant and The Man From Snowy River, used the city's past for his creative inspiration.

Thompson, who worked with the creative group Imagination, looked to old films such as The Kid Stakes and consulted photographs of the city from the 1800s to help him come up with the theme, Inspire.

The result will be a colourful display on Wednesday of never-before-seen shapes and colours, set to music, over Sydney Harbour.

Thompson believes the city needs this colourful celebration now more than ever.

"Somebody said to me 'what are you looking forward to on the night?' and I said 'party, party party,' because that's what's important. We tend to throw it away and say it's just a party but celebration is probably one of the most important human activities," he said.

As the city has struggled in recent weeks to come to terms with tragedy, Thompson said it was important for people to get together in large numbers to celebrate and simply say yes about life.

"If you see tragedy as exemplifying the human condition then you will find yourself a very sad person. And when you recognise that what actually typifies the human condition is our joy of life, our children our celebration of family and our celebration of who we are and where we live, if this is God's creation, should we not celebrate it?" he said.

From the old film, based on the Fatty Finn comic strip, to his own childhood growing up on the northern beaches and in Paddington, Thompson has been inspired to tell the city's story through the fireworks.

"When you come to the centre you'll see it's the stories, the tales of Sydney, where Sydney has come from who these people are, is what makes this city," he said.