Creativity in the ‘Torrid’ zone: policy, creative industries and the vision for Northern Australia

Abstract

Creative industries are recognised as a key driver of economic growth in both developed and developing nations. In addition to recognising the importance of creative industries, the Australian government has recently renewed a focus on the vast northern tropical area of this island nation as key to future economic and population growth, via the release of a white paper focussed on development options for the north. However, the white paper contains virtually no references to creative industries. In addition, Australia’s most recent national cultural policy, Creative Australia, has after only a few years slipped into obscurity and despite major resources being invested towards its development. Drawing on the almost 100 years of policy documentation relevant to Northern Australia, this paper highlights the limited attention paid to arts, culture and creative industries, and considers this relative policy vacuum in the context of global developments in creative industries.

Keywords:

• Northern Australia
• creative industries
• regional development
• Torrid zone

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge and thank the Northern Australia Taskforce who kindly provided permission to use the map presented as Figure 1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.