Australia heat map: The blue areas indicate where poetry is being read, the red areas where translated fiction is being read

Reasons to move to Australia continue to mount: According to a report in The Australian, “A major survey of how the nation engages with the arts has revealed 85 per cent of Australians are avid readers of poetry and literature ….”

And that’s not all — the newspaper Michaela Boland reports the survey “found the internet is now a key tool for access to the arts, interest for indigenous arts is increasing, and there are significant opportunities for arts organisations to build audiences.”

The survey was conducted by the Australia Council for the Arts and included 3,000 people — “the biggest survey of its kind since 2001,” reports Boland. ACA head Kathy Keele says it proves a major “change of attitude among Australians.”

“We’ve moved past the ‘either’ for sports or art,” she tells the paper. “That’s a hurdle we don’t have to cross any more.”