General News
23 October, 2026
Search trends track rise of Dimboola's Steampunk Festival
The Wimmera Steampunk Festival, held in Dimboola, attracts people from across Australia for its unique street celebration of the historical science fiction sub-genre combining Victorian-era aesthetics with steam-powered technology.
This content was created in partnership with Google Trends.
Google Trends data reveals spikes in Australian search interest associated with the Wimmera Steampunk Festival, particularly during the years the Dimboola event has been held.
While relative search interest appears to have peaked around the inaugural 2022 event, attendance figures suggest the festival has continued to grow in popularity, attracting an estimated 5000 visitors in 2025.
Steampunk is a literary sub-genre of historical science fiction dealing with Victorian-era steam-powered technology.
The term “steampunk” was officially coined in 1987 by American author K.W. Jeter, who used it playfully in a letter to Locus magazine as a witty offshoot of “cyberpunk”.
However, the origins of steampunk date back to the Victorian era itself, where it is theorised that one work in particular, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein published in 1818, set a precedent for sci-fi stories to come by questioning scientific experimentation and human life.
Unlike how cyberpunk combines high tech with social collapse set in a dystopian future, steampunk worlds run on steam engines, clockwork gears, complex brass machinery, and alternative technology.
The Wimmera Steampunk Festival, first held in April 2022, transports visitors back in time to a whimsical and distinctive world.
Across the past five years, trending data show Australians’ search for “Steampunk Dimboola” around April each year of the event.
The festival’s reinstatement in 2023 saw slightly fewer Australians searching for “Steampunk Dimboola,” and when the festival changed from being held annually to biennially in 2025, the search term trended again, however not as much as in 2022.
Over 2500 people flocked to Dimboola for the Wimmera Steampunk Festival in 2022, and despite the search term being on a downward trend, attendance soared to 4000 people in 2023 and 5000 people in 2025, increasing in popularity.
The DIY ethic is strong in the steampunk community, with many individuals building or modifying everyday objects to suit the neo-Victorian aesthetic costumes, aligning with craftsmanship and sustainability values.
The search term “steampunk fashion” peaked in conjunction with the Wimmera Steampunk Festival in 2022.
It takes an inconsistent pattern from there, and spikes up again the following April, but not to the same scale as in 2022.
It ebbs and flows afterwards, but is not a trending search for the 2025 event.
“Steampunk art” reaches peak interest post the 2022 festival in Dimboola, then is a consistent search term around April 2023, before reaching a slow decline over time.
It spikes again in early 2026, as does “steampunk fashion.”
A breakout term Australians are searching for is “AI art generator,” with artificial intelligence helping them create inspiration for their mystical costumes.
This content is part of a paid partnership with Google to promote Google Trends.
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