Sydney office software company Atlassian graduated from start-up to publicly listed company in spectacular fashion on Friday, with a triumphant New York sharemarket listing that heralded the arrival of Australia's long overlooked technology sector on the world stage.
The Nasdaq listing saw the market value of the most prominent technology company Australia has produced to date hit $8 billion after a 32 per cent share price surge on its first day of trading. That catapulted the firm - famously founded in 2002 by two University of New South Wales graduates on $10,000 in credit card debt - into the ranks of the nation's biggest companies, making its founders, Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes, instant billionaires. 
"The IPO is not so much about the money, it's about transitioning to the public stage and building an amazing company," Mr Farquhar said. "We're just getting started."
It was a hugely symbolic end to a momentous week for the Australian tech sector. The federal government unveiled a sweeping package to stimulate innovation and start-ups, which included new funding for research and changes to bankruptcy laws to promote risk-taking.
Meanwhile, the price of iron ore, Australia's biggest export, hit its lowest level in a decade, hurting the big miners as Gina Rinehart's $10 billion Roy Hill project added to the supply glut when its first shipment set sail for China.
Bank stocks were also under pressure, amid signs of an overheated mortgage market and global worries about the US Federal Reserve potentially lifting rates next week.
Representatives of the Australian technology community hailed this week's developments as a watershed moment for their sector. "We are all beaming," accounting software provider Xero's Australian managing director, Chris Ridd, told AFR Weekend.
"In the last 24 hours, I have met with a start-up talking about a listing in the next year, to an executive from one of the big four banks, and they are all saying the same thing: it's never been a better time to be in the [Australian] tech industry."
"The idea that economic growth can hinge on the technology industry is now mainstream, and for both sides of politics," Mr Ridd said. "I don't think we have been in this position before."
Hopes are high that Atlassian will only be the first in a long list of national success stories in technology, and that some of the local companies that follow its path to an IPO decide to list on the ASX, rather than in the US.
They include freight and logistics software company WiseTech, which is known for the CargoWise brand, and thought to be worth about $1 billion. "I've always taken the view this is a great place to be," its chief executive, Richard White, told AFR Weekend. "I have a personal desire to IPO the company and a strong personal desire to do that on the ASX,"
This week, there were more signs that the drought in funding for Australian start-ups - long considered the missing link in the establishment of a vibrant tech sector - had been broken.
Investment group Blue Sky Venture Capital announced plans to raise $200 million from institutions to invest in promising technology start-ups - the third such announcement in recent months. And First State Super said it planned to deploy $250 million into technology companies in the next few years.
The global technology spotlight shone on Australia for at least one other reason this week: heavily contested reports in the US press that an unknown Sydney based entrepreneur Craig Steven Wright, was the founder of crypto-currency bitcoin.
In a dramatic turn of events, a residence in Sydney's North Shore, believed to be leased by Mr Wright, was raided by police and tax officials.


In their league
Market cap at close on Friday ($m)
Company Value
News Corp  11.1
Qantas         8.0
Atlassian    8.0
Crown               7.8
REA Group   6.7

Company Value
Computershare 6.3
Fortescue   5.7
South32        5.4
Cochlear          5.3
SEEK  4.8