Futurian Society of Sydney

Meets on the third Friday of the month at the University of Technology, Sydney in room 1615 at 7pm. Each meeting has a topic around which discussions are centered. Contact Gary Dalrymple for meeting information The Sydney Futurians have recently joined the UTS Students Association. This is great news, because it guarantees a continuing meeting place in the UTS Tower building, and invites new members from the science fiction reading students and staff of the University. Evelyn Leper's picture of a Futurian meeting

Photograph courtesy of Cat Sparks

Ron Clarke (Editor of "The Sydney Futurian" and "The Mentor"), Ian Woolf, and Peter Eisler.
Ted and Gary's mirror Futurians site (last updated August 2004) David Bofinger's Auxillary Futurians page

people who have attended Sydney Futurian meetings and have web space

(if you'd like to be added or removed from this list, or have your URL updated, please mail me) Ted Scribner Garry Dalymple Eric Lindsay Graham Stone and here Brian Walls David Bofinger John August Cat Sparks Zara Baxter Leigh Blackmore

About the Futurians

The Irish SciFi News reported correspondence with the Sydney Futurians in 2003 Trufen.net give us a mention

History

The Sydney Futurians were revived in their current form by Ron Clarke in 1994, and have continued to have regular meetings of science fiction fans on the third Friday of the month. Previously: 1960's Fan History Outline reports: "-- but by far the most important fan organization, not only in Sydney but in all of Australia, came into existence in November 1939: the Sydney Futurians >> originally, the group was to be called the Sydney Science Fiction League, but when word spread about the group, surprisingly as far as New York City, Don Wollheim persuaded them, via corespondence, to take the name of the legendary New York fan group instead >> initial meeting was at Veney's parents' house >> the group managed something the previous groups could not: longevity; it survived, with periods of non-activity, for many decades --- it was the first fan organization to revive after the end of World War Two >> but back in 1930s and 1940s, it was the vehicle that brought some new people into fandom, most notably Don Tuck and Graham Stone, though Stone left the organization for a while in the 1950s as the result of a feud >> in the 1950s, the Sydney Futurians had grown large enough where it was meeting three times per week in its own clubroom, with attendances of as many as 40 fans on occasions when there was a party [additional source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] --- it could not stand all the prosperity, though; there were feuds and schisms with splinter groups forming >>> one of them, the so-called 'Thursday Night Group' or more descriptively, the 'Bridge Club Rebels', consisted of people expelled from the Sydney Futurians for seemingly minor infractions; Dave Cohen, who spoke for the group, said he would pay for meeting space in the Sydney Bridge Club clubrooms, and anyone except Graham Stone would be welcome [source: Nicholson 16Dec91 letter; Foyster 14Nov00 email] >>> another of them (name?) had enough stability to last until about 1960 and even host a visit by Robert A. Heinlein during his trip to Australia in 1954 --- it was the independence of some of these splinter groups that caused some friction with some fans, notably Stone, who believed that Sydney fandom was better served by a single monolithic organization [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] -- but in 1951, Stone himself had started what could be regarded as a splinter group, the Australian Science Fiction Society [source: Warner AWoF] >> the organization was a bit different than most, as it had no rules, no constitution, and except for Stone (who served as secretary), no officers >> its purpose seemed to be to keep all fans in the country informed on what other fans were doing, which it accomplished via its newszine STOPGAP >> membership soon grew to about 150, but it soon became embroiled in a series of feuds, mostly between Stone and some factions of the Sydney Futurians -- another subset of 1950s Sydney fandom was the Australian Fantasy Foundation, which was most noted for its publication FORERUNNER, one issue of which was so slickly produced and with such high-quality fiction that it was comparable to the prozines > by the mid 1950s, there was enough division and dissention in Sydney fandom that it couldn't really be called 'organized' any more -- at the business meeting of 1955 National Convention, there was much acrimony involving the Bridge Club Rebels and what remained of the Sydney Futurians [source: "Sea Green Sunday"] >> this led to the 48th issue of the Melbourne clubzine ETHERLINE carrying an 'In Memoriam' page that read "Sacred to the memory of organised Sydney fandom, which passed away after a lingering attack of schizophrenia April 1st 1955. Resting in the hope of a Glorious Resurrection." [source: Foyster 2May99 email] -- if there was one fan who was nearest the center of all the dissension, it was Graham Stone; he had become involved in an escalating row about who had control over the Sydney Futurians sf library that was the source of much of the unpleasantness at the 1955 Natcon business meeting [sources: MSFC web site; "Sea Green Sunday"] -- there was also dissension over who would sponsor any future Australian National Convention, there were enough hard feelings that Graham Stone never again supported another Australian convention >> however, by then, it was apparent that none of the Sydney splinter groups were capable of hosting another convention in the forseeable future [source: Foyster 7Nov00 email] -- another Sydney club appeared almost immediately, and it assumed the name of the Sydney Futurian Society >> some of the prominent members were Molesworth, Doug Nicholson, Arthur Haddon, and Dave Cohen --- Haddon, a tattooed ex-sailor, was one of the mainstays of the club; according to Nicholson, "he brought perhaps somewhat deficient literacy but enormous vigour to the pursuit of fannish activities." [source: Nicholson 16Dec91 letter] --- Cohen, who had been involved in prior Sydney fandom schisms, (describe him briefly) --- Nicholson (brief description) > but as the 1960s began, the Sydney Futurians seemed in decline -- the meeting sites were a succession of ever-smaller rooms [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] >> in effect, Stone was running the club as a one-man show, handling all the activities associated witht he club's library with occasional help from Alan South and Kevin Dillon [source: RClarke 24Nov00 email] -- some of the Sydney fans, most notably Doug Nicholson, started spending much of their time in a intellectual/Bohemian group called the 'Sydney Push' [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] >> Mike Baldwin, another of the fans in that group, gained some unwanted visibility when a story of his titled "God in the Marijuana Patch", which had been published in a University magazine, got that magazine banned and himself prosecuted for blasphemy [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] -- at the end of 1963, Stone took a job in Canberra, and Vol Molesworth's health started a rapid decline that ended with his death in the middle of 1964 [source: RClarke 24Nov00 email] >> it was clear that change was needed if the club were to last much longer > but the change did come, and Sydney fandom became revitalized by an influx of new faces -- Ron Smith, who had won a Hugo Award for his fanzine INSIDE, moved to Australia from the United States in 1963 [source: Foyster 7Nov00 email] >> he had become unnerved by the Cold War escalations in the United States, which was one of the reasons for the move to a subjectively safer part of the world >> once he relocated to Sydney, he leveraged his small press publication skills and became employed by the publisher Horwitz [source: Foyster 7Nov00 email] --- by the late 1960s, found that he could make more money working for a publisher of soft-core pornography >> after arriving in Australia, almost immediately he located Sydney fandom and became a part of it --- (more details needed) -- in August 1964, Ron Clarke and some of his friends at Normanhurst Boys High School in Sydney published the first issue of a new fanzine, THE MENTOR [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] >> Clarke had discovered fandom in 1963, after seeing a notice about an upcoming meeting of the Sydney Futurians in an issue of the British prozine NEW WORLDS [source: RClarke 24Nov00 email] -- on the night of the meeting, as he later remembered, "I ventured into Sydney to 96 Phillip Street, up the dark and musty stairs to the room on the 2nd floor where dwelt the Futurian Society of Sydney library. There I met Graham Stone, Kevin Dillon, and Alan South, as well as coffee whose taste and odour I can still taste and smell to this day." >> soon afterwards he became a member of the Sydney Futurians [source: Clarke 22Nov00 email] --- he quickly obtained the address of an active fanzine publisher in Melbourne, John Foyster, who sent him a copy of his fanzine SATURA --- Clarke soon experienced the urge to 'pub his ish', so Foyster got him in contact with another active fan, John Baxter, who lived in Sydney --- Baxter provided him copies of his fanzine, SOUFFLE, but more importantly, helped him select a manual typewriter --- Clarke, who was in his last year in high school, then founded the sf club there that would publish the first few issues of THE MENTOR >> the first issues were not very memorable, published initially for the pupils at the school, and were dismissed by Clarke himself as little more than crudzines [source: Clarke 22Nov00 email] >> after graduating from high school in 1966, Clarke continued THE MENTOR as his own fanzine --- by the seventh issue, the editorship had been reduced to Clarke himself, and the only reason it as published, according to Clarke, was to "show the flag" at the Melbourne Conference of May 1968 [source: Clarke 22Nov00 email] --- but things improved after that, with monthly issues over the next four months in quality and size, that established THE MENTOR as one of Australia's best fanzines --- Clarke's philosophy with THE MENTOR was to publish a mix, from fiction to poetry to articles of fanhistorical interest; he later wrote that "One of the main reasons I publish TM is to give stf fans the opportunity to see their stories in print and to hear what other people, stf readers like themselves, think of them." [source: Clarke 22Nov00 email] --- Clarke continued to publish the fanzine, with minor interruptions, until the late 1990s >> Clarke himself, perhaps because of THE MENTOR, later became of one Sydney's most prominent fans --- he attended first convention in 1966 --- one of founders of Sydney Science Fiction Foundation and ANZAPA --- in the 1970s, besides continuing to publish TM, he was active in helping to revive the Sydney Futurians from yet another moribund period, and even chaired one of the Australian National Conventions in that decade (in 1974) [source: Foyster 2Apr99 email] > one of the more important events in Sydney fandom in the 1960s was the visit, in (when?), of famous writers Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton -- John Bangsund, a Melbourne fan of whom more will be mentioned shortly, wanted to make sure Brackett and Hamilton would meet some fans while they were in Australia, and contacted two people he knew in Sydney to organize the event: Betsy (lastname?) and John Danza [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] >> little was heard of the organizers after that hurriedly-arranged event, but the event itself was so successful that it gave organized fandom in Sydney a needed boost >> an organization of fans came together as a result of the event, and became known as the Sydney Science Fiction Foundation > Sydney Science Fiction Foundation -- pretentious-sounding name aside, it was a science fiction club similar in intent and style to other Sydney sf clubs [source: Foyster 8Nov00 email] -- (details? purpose? prominent fans? activities?) -- the prime mover-and-shaker of the organization was Gary Mason >> Mason considered himself more of a comics fan than a science fiction fan, but he was the organizational force that kept the SSFF active in its early years [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email] -- other members included Ron & Sue Clarke, Shayne McCormack, Kevin Dillon [source: Foyster 8Nov00 email] >> there were crossovers from other Sydney fan groups, including even the local STAR TREK club -- in the end, the organization proved to be somewhat long-lived, but not with permanency; it survived well into the 1970s, but passed from existence by the time the 1980s had arrived [source: Foyster 5Nov00 email]"