“Read Queer, Be Here”: A New Online Queer Bookshop Has Opened In Sydney

Only a few months after the much loved queer staple Bookshop Darlinghurst closed in Sydney, a small, self-funded queer bookshop has stepped up to try and respectfully fill their fabulous shoes.

Obsidian Bookshop is an online-only bookstore, which launched this weekend, and the creators have big plans – along with selling online and at markets, they want to move into doing community events like film screenings and panel discussions, with the team of three ultimately dreaming of having their own physical bookshop.

“This concept started long time ago, me and my partner talking about wanting to create a queer bookshop. But I felt very strongly about not stepping on the toes of the existing queer bookshop in Sydney, Bookshop Darlinghurst. So when they sadly closed, my brain went, ok, we can do this, we should do this. This is the time. But we don’t have funding, it’s literally just out of our own money, so we had to scale back our idea and create an online bookshop store as opposed to opening a physical space,” says Billy Hambides to Star Observer.

Billy points to Amplify Bookstore in Melbourne, which focuses on selling books from diverse authors, as one of the inspirations for their model. Amplify also started as online only, before recently expanding into a physical shop.

 

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Librarian Billy and artist partner Archer have been together for 19 years, and say it was a “no brainer” to work as a team with friend Bowen, who is a photographer by trade. All three of them love books, and believe strongly in the importance of queer literature.

“I feel very strongly that we need more independent bookshops in general, and the fact that we currently do not have a physical queer bookshop in particular is really sad,” says Hambides.

The Bookshop Darlinghurst served Sydney LGBTQIA+ communities since 1982, with the store closing in 2025 after 43 years, citing “significant financial strain” on the decision shut down after so long.

Queer bookstores play an important part in the LGBTQIA+ community, says Billy, explaining why Sydney needs a new player.

“There’s a huge emphasis in the queer community with partying and you know, dancing all night – Hannah Gadsby said it best ‘where do all the quiet queers go?’ We love a party, we love to dance, but we also need space that isn’t surrounded by drugs and alcohol, that isn’t surrounded by noise, where you can engage with your people and your community and discuss our stories.”

He also points out that even in a city like Sydney, where the queer community has a lot of privilege, we are still attacked, and still discriminated against.

 “I do think there is still a need for these spaces. We’re still under the radar. We still are under threat, just look at the rise in book bans and censorship. I do think it’s still very important to have queer bookshops, because if we let it go, if we become complacent, it will go backwards. It just will.”

Pointing at authors like Madeleine Gray and Gary Lonesborough as Australian books he’s enjoyed recently, Hambides says that Obsidian Bookshop is an opportunity to give a platform to, and support, local queer authors.

“Let’s uplift them and support our community, because they don’t get as much love internationally as they should, so we should do it here.”

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Disclaimer: the author’s own book, In Spite of You, was featured on the Obsidian Bookshop Instagram page before this interview, but this is not part of any paid or sponsored content.