Qtopia kicks off with $1m gift from Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch

Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch are giving $1m to Australia’s first queer museum and urging corporations to give generously to the country’s queer community.

Ian Roberts, Australia’s first openly gay rugby league player, and Sarah Murdoch at the launch of Qtopia Sydney on Thursday. Picture: Richard Dobson

Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch are giving $1m to Australia’s first queer museum and urging corporations to give generously to the country’s queer community.

Qtopia – a dedicated space for LGBTQIA+ history, art and culture – launched at the Bandstand in Sydney’s National Art School on Thursday with an exhibit ­celebrating gender and sexual ­diversity, just in time for the kick-off on Friday of the city’s World Pride festival.

Ms Murdoch and Mr Murdoch – the co-chairman of News Corp, publisher of The Australian – were approached by their friend Ian Roberts, Australia’s first openly gay rugby league player, to support the museum, which he has worked on for three years.

“I hope our donation will encourage many more corporates, foundations and families to invest in what will be an amazing institution. An institution that … saves the lives of many young Australians,” Ms Murdoch told the crowd at the museum opening.

Sarah Murdoch embracing Ian Roberts after his emotional speech at the launch of Qtopia Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Qtopia was envisioned by David Cooper, a St Vincent’s Hospital immunologist who made some of the first diagnoses of HIV-AIDS and dreamt of a physical space to honour those affected. He died in 2018.

“It’s a big honour for Lachlan and me to be able to lay the financial foundations to realise David Cooper’s vision,” Ms Murdoch said. “Our hope is that Qtopia Sydney will assure the dreadful crimes against the queer community will never be forgotten and the stories of those who fought are told. Our hope is that Qtopia finds a permanent home.”

The HIV-AIDS epidemic was one Ms Murdoch saw up close and she told The Australian that in her first two years in modelling, “so many people that I worked with died”.

“It was incredibly shocking, it was incredibly sad,” she said. “And the discrimination that went on during that time was awful … This is our community, incredible creative people. This is our family. I’ve seen a lot of discrimination over the years and we can’t let it continue.”

Two exhibits have been installed in Darlinghurst: the first in the Bandstand and the second in Building 11 of the National Art School. The latter, which opens on Friday, will be a re-creation of Ward 17 of St Vincent’s Hospital, the nation’s first dedicated HIV-AIDS treatment centre.

Greg Fisher, Sarah Murdoch and David Polson at the launch of Qtopia Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Board member and chairman David Polson, among the first 400 people to be diagnosed with HIV-AIDS in Australia, spent time in Ward 17 and was treated by Cooper.

“Today is a very important day to me because … it’s a memorial for my dear friend David Cooper, who saved my life,” he said.