For the first time in nearly three decades, Australia will next year be without a serious competitor in the world motorcycle championship.

Two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner’s retirement from the sport will leave a huge void in 2013 – one not seen since the mid-1980s.

Australians have dominated on two wheels at the highest level, winning eight world championships in the sport’s premier class, starting with Wayne Gardner’s in 1987 and including five to Mick Doohan.

The likes of Daryl Beattie, Kevin Magee, Garry McCoy, Chris Vermeulen and Troy Bayliss helped keep Australia competitive and well represented throughout the 1980s and 90s and early 2000s.

Then came Stoner. But his pending departure at 27 prompts the question: what lies beneath?

Right now, Australia’s cupboard appears bare.

Stoner’s ability on a bike and likeability off it have been the drawcard for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix since his first win at Phillip Island in 2007 – the start of five successive triumphs at the Victorian track.

His dominance has led to what those in charge call “the Casey effect”.

Nowhere is it better illustrated than ahead of this weekend’s event – Stoner’s last race at Phillip Island – in which ticket sales have gone gang-busters and attendance records loom.

“The Casey factor leads to sold-out grandstands, sold-out corporate suites and packed-out public grandstands,” Australian Grand Prix chief Andrew Westacott said.

When it’s gone, what replaces it?

And in a sport where Australians have been competitive for so long, who’s the next Aussie on the world scene?

These days MotoGP has the most Euro-centric of feels about it.

Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa are currently atop the world standings and aside from Stoner, the only race winners this season.

The sport’s coming man is another Spaniard – Moto2 gun Marc Marquez – who is set to assume Stoner’s seat at Repsol Honda for 2013.

Italian nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi is still racing, and his switch to Yamaha next season may spark him towards his first race win since 2010.

But even Rossi joined those questioning the sport’s direction this week, labelling MotoGP “boring” and “too perfect” and lamenting Lorenzo and Pedrosa’s dominance.

The sport’s direction was a concern Stoner cited as part of his reason to quit MotoGP with many more potential wins still in front of him.

For Australia, there are shoots of green.

Teenagers Jack Miller and Arthur Sissis are making an impact in Moto3 – one of the main game’s undercards.

Yet taking a line through Stoner, who won his first MotoGP at 21, they are years away from fulfilling their promise.

Stoner is concerned the looming void could be because of a lack of financial support for the sport in Australia at its grassroots, and the legal red tape facing those organising races.

“Unfortunately motorsport inside Australia doesn’t have support,” Stoner said.

“There’s nobody out there that’s stepping up with sponsorship, or helping to find places for people to ride or start learning, or running Australian championships.”

Whatever’s the cause and whoever’s the solution, no obvious successor to Stoner will be ready in 2013.

Thus begins the hard sell.

An Australian Grand Prix without an Aussie rider at the grid’s pointy end.