The Booranga Writers’ Centre has been unsuccessful in it’s bid for annual funding from Create NSW under Chris Minn’s Labor government. This came as a real shock to the Booranga Committee as Wagga Wagga Writers Writers, to give Booranga its full legal title, has been operating for 30 years. Booranga serves its members and the local community through hosting Writers-in-Residence at their facility located on the Charles Sturt University Campus in Wagga Wagga, and through the publication of its annual anthology fourW. It also supports local and visiting writers with venues, book launches and reading events. Business Manager Dr Greg Pritchard said ‘this is a real blow to the writers of the region and may mean the Centre has to close. At the very least we will have to severely curtail our activities’ ‘It’s very disappointing’ he said, 'as Booranga had a great year with many events, a book sale, open day, writing film night, 10 open mic events and associated workshops and I have just been distributing copies of fourW thirty-four the centre’s anthology of new poetry and prose from all around the Riverina, Australia and internationally.’ ‘We participated in the public meetings in 2023 about the new cultural policy, and the call from creatives in the Region was for more funding for regional areas, not to defund one of the Riverina’s key cultural organisations.’ Booranga President David Gilbey said he was very disappointed, ‘I've often said that so long as there was ongoing funding (from the NSW Government) Booranga could continue - this was the genius of the original funding from Arts NSW back in the 1990s. Its cessation is certainly a mortal blow to Booranga as we know it.’