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Vital Sites for the SF fan

Ansible

 

The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet
All the news of what’s happening in SF in Australia and around the world

 

Locus Magazine

 

The SF Hub
The UK SF Foundation

 

SF Site

 

Fantastic Fiction

 

Fantastic Universe

 

Galactic Central

 

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Our Sponsors and suppliers – spend your money here!

Slow Glass Books
497 High St
Northcote VIC 3070
(03) 9489 0893

 

Minotaur
121 Elizabeth St
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9670 5414

 

Book Affair
161 Elgin Street
Carlton VIC 3053
(03) 9347 3542

 

Syber’s Books
38 Chapel St
Windsor VIC 3181
(03) 9530 2222

 

Dymocks – Southland
Shop 3067/8
Westfield Southland
1239 Nepean Highway
Cheltenham VIC 3192
(03) 9584 1245

 

Madman
See their website for online ordering

 

Penguin Books Australia
See their website for online ordering
Hachette Livre
See their website for online ordering

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Sites of our guests and friends

Our Guests – Sites of our guests and friends

Trudi Canavan http://www.trudicanavan.com

Alison Goodman http://www.alisongoodman.com.au

Narelle Harris http://twitter.com/daggyvamp

Shaun Tan http://www.shauntan.net

Kerry Greenwood http://www.phrynefisher.com

Nicki Greenberg http://www.nickigreenberg.com

Kim Westwood http://www.kimwestwood.com

Jack Dann http://www.jackdann.com

Cecilia Dart-Thornton http://www.dartthornton.com

Richard Morgan http://www.richardkmorgan.com

Nick Hilligoss http://www.picturetrail.com/hilligossnic

Jenny Blackford http://jennybl.customer.netspace.net.au

Lucy Sussex http://www.sussex.id.au/home

Paul Collins http://www.paulcollins.com.au

Dick ‘Ditmar’ Jennsen On his life and the MFSC

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Sister Clubs (in Victoria and beyond)

Australian Science Fiction Foundation

ASFF’s main purpose is to sponsor and encourage the creation and appreciation of science fiction in Australia

 

Meteor Incorporated
Meteor Incorporated is a not-for-profit incorporated association registered in Victoria that was established in 2007 to accumulate donations and bequests to acquire premises for the establishment of a science fiction institution and research library in Australia. It also has a shorter-term objective of saving and storing ‘at risk’ collections until it has the resources to manage them properly. As from February 2010 donations of $2 or more to its public fund by Australian taxpayers are tax deductible.

 

AusTrek
The Star Trek fan club
Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote
Meetings first Saturday of the month, 2-5pm

 

Doctor Who Club of Victoria (DWCV)
Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote.
Check their Website for meeting times.

 

The Torchwood Fan Club of Australia
The Torchwood Fan Club of Australia is the first official club for Australian fans.

 

Spaced Out
Australia’s first science fiction club for gays, lesbians and friends
Grandma Funks, 256 Swan St. Richmond
Meetings once a month, from 6:30pm

 

Star Walking Inc.
The Star Wars appreciation society in Australia.
The Mervyn Himbury Theological Studies Centre’ 50 The Avenue, Parkville.
Meet every few months on Saturday afternoon, from 1:00-5:00pm, see their website more information.

SFFiG
Science Fiction and Fantasy in Geelong

 

Melbourne Anime Society
The Melbourne Anime Society no longer exists, please refer to the link for South East Anime for all your Anime action.

 

South East Anime
For the Anime fans, they also have a Yahoo group: SEAnime

 

Australian Browncoats
Serenity and Josh Whedon Appreciation community.
see website for meetings, if any.

 

Society for Creative Anachronism
An international non-profit educational organisation that is dedicated to the research and recreation of pre-17th century European History

Federation Square book reading group (email)
Federation Square (Melbourne) SF & Fantasy genres book reading group.
Free to attend, meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month from 11.30am at Café Beer Delux in Federation Square.
E-mail: books@fedsquare.com

 

Victorian Writers’ Centre
The Victorian Writers’ Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that assists writers through the various stages of their development.

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Whirlaway to Thrilling Wonder Stories

By Race Mathews

Race Matthews was, as this article shows, one of the founding members of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, and since 1992 has returned to an active interest in SF. To the rest of the world, however, he is Director of the Institute of Politics and Public Affairs in the Graduate School of Government at Monash University. He was Victoria’s Minister for Community Services (1997-88) and Minister for the Arts and Minister for Police and Emergency Services (1992-87). He represented Oakleigh in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1979 to 1992, and Casey in the federal House of Representatives from 1972 to 1975, and was a Councillor for the City of Croydon from 1964 to 1966. He was Principal Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria (1976-79) and federally (1967-72). His Australia’s First Fabians: Middle-Class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement was published by Cambridge University Press in 1993, and he is currently writing about the co-operative movement in Britain, Canada and Spain

Race Mathews opened each of the 1975 and 1985 Worldcons, both held in Melbourne.

This article was re-printed from Bruce Gillespie’s fanzine, Metaphysical Review. It was first written as a paper to be presented at Nova Mob.

Due to the size of the article, it has been split into several sections. Fortunately Race had already divided the article into several discrete sections.

Part 1: First Encounters

Any account of the origins of the Melbourne Science Fiction Group, which later became the Melbourne Science Fiction Club, must in the nature of things be as much about biography as history. In order to understand how the MSFG (Melbourne Science Fiction Group) was established, it is necessary also to understand how in the first place the Group’s founders acquired tastes for science fiction which were tantamount to an addiction, and what it was that led them on further to the point where an organisation was required. In as much as what follows sets out the development of my own reading habits to the point of my discovery of science fiction and membership of the MSFG, it is offered as a paradigm from which the experiences of others may differ in detail, but which in a broad sense reflects the group as a whole.

Continue reading →