Forty degree heat was never going to stop Geraldton residents from celebrating Australia Day.

Crowds gathered on the foreshore in the morning to see Active Citizenship awards presented, and a record group of new citizens become naturalised Australians.

Entertainment continued as the temperature climbed and few could fail to be impressed as, in the hottest part of the day, Phil Doncon unleashed his high-energy Paint Storm.

Leaping and whirling to music as he splashed paint across a giant canvas at breakneck speed, the acrobatic artist won well-deserved applause.

Doncon was just one in a huge array of entertainers who kept the spectators waiting for more, and that crowd grew as the sun — and the temperature — lowered.