Good morning and welcome to Sports Mole's coverage of the 2018 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony live from the Gold Coast.
This will be the 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games and the fifth to be held in Australia - more than any other country.
In all, more than 6,600 athletes will be competing in 275 events across 18 sports over the next 11 days, with well over 800 medals up for grabs in that time.
Make sure you don't miss a moment of the action from the opening ceremony courtesy of our minute-by-minute updates below.
It is 7pm for us here on the Gold Coast, nine hours ahead of the UK, so forget about tonight's Champions League action for now and kick off a great day of sport with the official opening of the Commonwealth Games!
The pre-show has just begun, and the ceremony itself gets underway in an hour, so allow me to walk you through the history of the Games, what these Games may have to offer, and everything else you need to know about the upcoming 11 days of action...
The wind has been blowing with some force throughout the day too, but that is not likely to dampen the spirits of these fans as they celebrate the biggest event to ever hit the Gold Coast.
The most recent of those before this year was in Glasgow four years ago, and they will be returning to the UK when Birmingham hosts it in four years' time. It is the third-biggest multi-sport event in the world, behind only the Olympic Games and the Asian Games.
There are actually only 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, but a number of territories compete under their own flags - including, of course, the home nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It is natural to back the underdogs, of course, but Team England are one of the big boys as far as these Games are concerned, and they will be hoping to once again upset their great rivals Australia on their own patch over the next 11 days.
This has been described as the biggest sporting event to ever hit the state of Queensland, and certainly the biggest for the Gold Coast.
They do it by some way too, claiming 2218 medals in total, including a whopping 852 golds. England are in second place with 669 golds and 2008 overall, while Canada sit third with 469 golds.
Those 1986 Games were also topped by England and hosted in Scotland, but there is a huge difference between doing that in neighbouring territory and doing it on enemy turf. England haven't topped the medal table outside the UK since that great sporting year of 1966.
Only six teams have attended each and every edition of the Games, with those being Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.
There will be more sports taking place on the Gold Coast this year than at any previous edition of the Commonwealth Games, with 18 taking place in addition to seven para-sports. Beach volleyball was announced as the unprecedented 18th sport in March 2016, being introduced for its debut at the Games.
Plenty of sports to feast upon over the next 11 days so far, then, and while they may not all be at Olympic standard, we will also be seeing some of the world's very best athletes taking part.
For these Games, those optional sports are diving, basketball, cycling, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, triathlon and wrestling.
Indeed, these Games have been a flagbearer for equality in all aspects, with an equal number of medals available for men and women - the first time that has ever been the case at a major multi-sports event.
The highlights of day one as far as Team England are concerned is likely to come either in the swimming pool or in triathlon, the latter of which sees the Brownlee brothers - defending gold and silver medallists at the Games - and Vicky Holland in action.
The official line is that "it was chosen to highlight the dreams and experience at the Games", and there will certainly be plenty of dreams made over the next 11 days. We saw some of the world's best athletes launch their careers in Glasgow four years ago, and I'm sure the same will happen this time around.
Borobi is an Aboriginal term for koala, and guess what - it's a koala! Well, more a mutant koala in truth, with blue fur and indigenous markings on its body. Borobi didn't go down too well when he was first unveiled, but he certainly seems to have been a popular figure since we've been out here.
Thankfully, Boprobi has denied all such illicit allegations and I can dispel the myths. Borobi remains a reputable and untarnished mutant koala bear.
Sally Pearson has been the poster girl of these Games having won golds in the 100m hurdles at the last two editions of the Commonwealths, as well as being an Olympic and world champion in the discipline. Surprisingly she was not selected as Australia's flagbearer, though, with that honour going to Aussie skipper Mark Knowles.
Team England are once again in second place in that respect having brought a team of 396, and while that may be dwarfed by Australia's, it is still the biggest squad England have ever taken to an overseas Games.
Among those is New Zealand's first transgender competitor at the Commonwealths - weightlifter Laurel Hubbard - and 11-year-old Welsh table tennis player Anna Hursey. Hursey is a whopping 56 years the junior of Northern Ireland's shooter David Calvert, who is looking for a fifth gold medal at his record-extending 11th Commonwealth Games this year.
In the pool, Semenya's compatriot Chad le Clos is targeting eight medals at these Games, looking to add to the seven he won in Glasgow four years ago. If he wins medals in all eight this year he could become the most successful male Commonwealth competition of all time, having won 12 from his two Games so far.
The South African could, then, claim a large chunk of the 825 medals on offer at these Games. The majority of those will be handed out in swimming - 240, to be precise - but athletics is not far behind with 237.
The first medal will actually be handed out at the women's triathlon tomorrow morning, though, with that beginning at 9.31am local time and taking place over a sprint distance - half the length of an Olympics triathlon.
Olympic sports have been rocked by plenty of doping scandals in recent years and, while reports suggest the syringes were not used for doping purposes, it was a clear breach of the no-needles policy in the Village.
The CGf have promised that those to blame will be properly dealt with, though, and it is a situation they seem to be taking seriously.
There seemed to be a mix-up with Gambia, who only rejoined the Commonwealth a couple of weeks ago, but it certainly won't do much to improve the rivalry between the Aussies and the English!
Well, all the usuals will be there - fireworks, dances and the hordes of flags which will introduce each nation to the fans inside this Carrara Stadium. On top of that we will see Prince Charles officially open the Games, having arrived in Australia with Camilla earlier today.
That came at Surfers' Paradise, although she couldn't quite keep up with me on my morning run while carrying it.
This is the baton's 100th day in Australia, and having been all over the Commonwealth its long journey will finally conclude tonight.
That is about all I can tell you at this stage, though - you'll have to stick around for the rest!