Growing up in Australia in the eighties Mad Max was everywhere but most of my science fiction came from offshore.
While my neighbours spent long hot Januarys sunbaking or hooning around on Malvern Star bikes, I spent my holidays holed up inside with American chums like Philip K Dick, Asimov and Tepper.
British author Peter F Hamilton got me out of beach cricket. Dr Who gave me an excuse to switch the telly away from Skippy. I even missed the blue light disco thanks to May, Huxley and the early works of Simmons – is there anything more perfect than Hyperion? But really, few Aussies were in my scifi world aside from Max.
Where were Australian scifi authors in my formative years? [Sigh]
Fortunately, things are turning around. Despite our slow start, and to be honest there are still only 25million of us down here so it’s hard to make a dent on the Americans, these days the Aussie scifi scene is on the rise.
Prolific authors like Traci Harding, Sean McMullen, Sean Williams have had us racing through the stars for well over a decade, while Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman’s rock and roll vision is transporting us into the future.
Are you acquainted with Aussie Speculative Fiction yet? This fast growing collaboration is publishing a raft of brilliant scifi anthologies and novellas.
Need more? Take a look at the titles entered in this years Aurealis Awards; wonderful new local scifi is out there, Mulder.
So where is the next big Aussie scifi film? A 21st century replacement for Mad Max to inspire a new generation of Aussie scifi writers.
Glad you asked. Our film industry is also on the rise. Recent homegrown productions include; The Osiris Child and Mother, both proving you don’t need a massive budget to make a good flick. Of course if we include US blockbusters filmed down under we could also claim The Matrix, Planet of the Apes and Star Wars II.
Still, it would be nice to have a truly Aussie bockbuster.
Perhaps an exciting new dystopian scifi like Letters from the Light?
Shel Calopa 
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