Without writers and thinkers, Sydney risks becoming a cultural ghost city

It has been a big week for the nation’s publishers, with the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, won by Siang Lu for his novel Ghost Cities, bringing attention to the best Australian fiction published over the past year.

But, as Linda Morris reports in today’s Sun-Herald, key industry voices have warned that professional writing will become an unviable occupation within 20 years, without a steady flow of paid speaking gigs to supplement measly earnings from book sales.

Australia’s writers earn an average of $18,500 a year.

In an attempt to increase the stream of such gigs, the Sydney Writers’ Festival will move to deliver events year-round, becoming a resident company of the State Library. The move – supported by a $1.5 million state government investment – comes ahead of NSW’s new writing and literature strategy, a welcome Australian first.

Because, while Arts Minister John Graham is right to say that Sydney is “not a shallow city”, it is also an ever more expensive city – one which creatives are leaving in droves for cheaper Australian capitals or better opportunities abroad.

As Australia’s publishers grapple with how to foster a new generation of local writers, a similar crisis is being experienced by the nation’s music industry, where artists, earning from streams a fraction of what they did from record sales, have been left to invest thousands of dollars touring music to try to escape the international algorithms that now determine airplay.

The Australian Recording Industry Association will change the way it calculates its charts from September, restricting the list to songs released in the past two years, amid concerns about older tunes sitting on the chart for years after it included streaming plays and not just record sales in its count.

This has been a particular issue for ARIA’s Australian music charts. Last week, the top song on the Australian Artist Singles chart was Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House, released in 1986. AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, released in 1990, was in second, having spent 181 consecutive weeks in the top 20. And that isn’t even that long a stint: Vance Joy’s 2013 Hottest 100 winner Riptide has been in the top 20 for 363 consecutive weeks, last week at number 4.

Just one song in the top 20 – How Does it Feel? by The Kid Laroi – was released this year.

With no local content rules on streaming algorithms, and a declining radio audience, Australian music can struggle to cut through to local audiences. There was no Australian song on the overall ARIA top 50 chart last week.

And yet, when asked to nominate their favourite Australian songs in yesterday’s Triple J Hottest 100 countdown, almost 3 million of us did so. The countdown came amid criticism of the station’s annual poll’s declining number of Australian artists.

There is clearly an appetite for Australian and, indeed, Sydney stories. While more should be done, it is great to see action from government and industry to help them continue to be told.

Bevan Shields sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor.