For events that have been cancelled or rescheduled, ticket holders said they had experienced delays in receiving their money back. For postponed events that do not yet have a new date, ticket holders have been indefinitely left out of pocket.

Louise Maskell, 56, a freelance subeditor from Balaclava in Melbourne, is unsure of the status of almost $500 spent on tickets to punk icon Patti Smith's gig at Melbourne's Forum in April, almost a month after the 73-year-old's Australian tour was called off. She was told by Ticketmaster to hold onto her tickets until a new date was confirmed.

"I'm scratching around doing freelance work; $500 is a lot of money and it means a lot to me right now, today. Next year, who knows where I'll be? Who knows if I'll be able to afford a ticket or not?" Maskell said. "Ticketmaster is a mammoth company, and they've got my money. It shouldn't be such a fight to get my money back."

Brooke Hyland, 29, a midwife from Singleton in NSW, spent more than $1000 on four tickets to the Backstreet Boys concert at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, scheduled for May 22.

"I've been waiting for an email from Ticketek to let me know if it's cancelled or postponed so we know if we can reschedule our plans or seek refunds. But I've heard nothing," Hyland said.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said "due to the unusually high volume of cancelled events", processing refunds was taking time. A Ticketek spokesperson said the company was "working through millions of ticket refunds" and the "vast majority of fans have received their refunds within a 20-working day window."

Regarding ticket holders' rights, a spokesperson for Consumer Affairs Victoria said: "If an event is unable to go ahead due to coronavirus, consumers are entitled to a refund for any services not provided."

However, NSW Fair Trading said consumer guarantees can be affected when bookings are cancelled due to reasons beyond a business's control, such as government restrictions.

"We appreciate that actions to reduce the spread of coronavirus are impacting existing plans, but we hope customers and vendors can work together during these uncertain times to agree on a satisfactory outcome for both parties," the spokesperson added.

Evelyn Richardson, chief executive of Live Performance Australia, the peak body for the country's live performance industry, said rescheduling gigs was taking time due to the uncertainty about when restrictions would be lifted.

In the US, rock band Bon Jovi earned praise from fans for choosing to cancel their tour rather than postpone so ticket holders could quickly secure refunds. But Richardson said cancelling dates remained an undesirable option for live music promoters looking towards a post-coronavirus landscape.

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"In a world where we will be wanting to reactivate as soon as possible, we're obviously looking at rescheduling events as much as we can. Consumers will then be able to say, 'Yep, I'm happy to move my ticket to that date' or 'Nah, I want my money back,'" Richardson said.

"But it's a massive task; you can't just move everything forward six months and think it will all fall in place."

Richardson said ticket vendors and promoters were considering specified refund windows and credit vouchers for tickets but urged consumers to be patient and "work with us as we try to get through to the other side of this".