The Australia 2028 Worldcon bid today made its first post on X.com in three years saying they are “live”.
The X.com profile has been partially updated to show the bid’s target year.
The X.com profile says the bid chair is Random Jones. (There was a Chicon 8 (2022) member by that name.)
The bid’s X.com profile still links to a now-defunct Australia in 2025 web page. A copy of the page saved at the Internet Archive in 2023 shows it was launched after CoNZealand in 2020.
For the past several years the only active 2028 bid has been Uganda 2028, to host the Worldcon in Kampala.
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Brisbane is a nice city. August is one of the colder months for the city but I think the average August temperature for Brisbane would still be a bit warmer than Glasgow in the same month.
This is excellent news! Just looked up their climate in Wikipedia; it’s about like Denver in May.
I wonder if Random Jones is related to my late friend Anonymous Jones, who published the Australian Emigration Newsletter on his bulletin board system (remember those?) back in the 1980s? (Just kidding, AJ was indeed a pseudonym and I knew him IRL, and the AEN was a running joke.)
I’m still hoping to get someone in Saskatoon Saskatchewan to chair a bid for Saskatoon in 2067. It can’t be me, as I’d be 104.
That’s fabulous news.
“It lives!”
I hope someone runs against the Kampala bid. The main reason is Uganda’s laws against homosexuality. Another reason is practical, their site only has about 400 rooms on it so in order to attend it would be a taxi drive everyday. Also I checked the flights. A flight to Kampala from San Francisco consists of flying from California over the entirety of the North American continent, then the Atlantic and all of Africa to the East Coast of Africa and then a fairly short flight to Kampala. The Earth is huge!!!
@Linda: Last I noticed, the Kampala bid was for 2028. Brisbane in 2028 is now running against them.
2026 is Los Angeles, unopposed.
2027 is Montreal vs. Tel Aviv.
2028 is Brisbane vs. Kampala.
2029 is Dublin, unopposed.
2030 is, as yet, empty.
2031 is somewhere in Texas, unopposed. Not sure why they haven’t settled on a city.
This list is from the official Worldcon bid site. The Brisbane bid has been listed there for a long time, but there was some worry stemming from little or no communication from the Land of Oz. They have now communicated, and it is wonderful news.
Brisbane in 2028 has an interesting banner: Brisbane in 2025.
Michael Walsh: Exactly. This bid has done nothing to impress so far.
This bid has done one thing to impress so far: they’ve picked a city where being gay isn’t a serious crime. Now, I admit, that doesn’t seem like a particularly high bar, but it’s one their opponents haven’t been able to clear, so, at least for now, they’ve got my vote! 🙂
(For somewhat similar reasons, I’m hoping a second bid pops up for 2031.)
The XTwitter banner has now been updated. https://x.com/brisbanein28
Jeanne Jackson: I am the lead maintainer for the Worldcon.org bid list. I have to admit that sometime I am the last person to know when something has changed, because bids rarely contact us with information.
Am I the only one still holding out for Minneapolis in ’73?
Seems unlikely, Rob.
Mmm.. it is interesting re the Brisbane 2028 Worldcon bid (and good luck to them), that all the previous and successful AussieCons/Worldcons were held in Melbourne. I assume that a no of elements apply here re the change of Aussie city. Perhaps, one aspect might be re con burn-out by those resident in Melbourne, thus contributing to this. Also we must remember that Australia is effectively a Continent (and it IS huge in size but sparse in population) and I’m told that most of the people there live near to Sydney anyway (which has never itself hosted a Worldcon). No doubt we will hear more at Glasgow and at Seattle… best wishes..
I do hope this is a real, credible bid. I also hope my wife will let me go.
Not really. The bulk (60%) of the population lives in a big region that encompasses Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and surrounding urban areas.
a big region that encompasses Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane
The distance from Melbourne to Brisbane is roughly the distance from Paris to Stockholm, or New York City to Kansas City. Just for reference.
I really hope this bid gets it together. Not only do I have problems with Uganda (most of us here probably do), but I can imagine a schedule like this:
Go to Sydney and watch the solar eclipse from my sister-in-law’s back yard. It will be in the path of totality.
Take the train to Brisbane, stay a few days with our nephew and his family.
Go to the Worldcon!
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