Sydney, NSW

Australian fandom is generally considered to have begun in Sydney. The first four Australian Natcons were held in Sydney. However, a split in Sydney fandom led to those conventions being discontinued there for many years. Sydney was the intended site for an unsuccessful Australia in '83 Worldcon bid, which was assisted by the second of the Anti-Fan films. But some Australians withdrew support from the bid due to a rival bid being favoured by Jack Chalker who had taken the first of the Anti-Fan films, promoting an earlier Australian Worldcon bid, to a number of North American conventions. That a bid for the 1985 Worldcon to be held in Melbourne was launched upon failure of the Australia in '83 bid appears to have led to some distrust of Melbourne fandom by Sydney fandom, which might in turn explain subsequent bids for the Worldcon to be held in Sydney being promoted more overseas than interstate. There has been at least two Nullus Anxietas conventions in Sydney, as well as a series of Sydney freecons, but it has been over twenty years since there has been an Australian natcon in Sydney.

A Brief Chronology

Date	Event
1935, Aug 15	First official meeting of the Sydney Science Fiction League
ca. 1937	Spacehounds (fan publication) first published
1938	Junior Australian Science Fiction Correspondence Club formed
1939, May	Australian Fan News (fanzine) published
1939, Nov 5	First official meeting of the Futurian Society of Sydney
1940, Jan	Futurian Observer first published
1940	Futurian Association of Australia formed
1940, Dec 6	First Sydney Conference held
1941, Apr 13	Second Sydney Conference held
1942, January 4	Third Sydney Conference held
1942	Futurian Society of Sydney officially disbanded
1947	Futurian Society of Sydney revived
1950	Futurian Press began publication
1951, Feb	Australian Science Fiction Society announced in first issue of Woomera
1952, Mar 22	First Australian Science Fiction Convention (i.e., first Australian Natcon)
1952, Apr 1	North Shore Futurian Society officially formed
1953, Jan	Science Fiction News first published
1953, May 1-3	Second Australian Science Fiction Convention
1953	An Outline History of Australian Fandom I published
1954, Apr 1	First meeting of Sydney SF Group that was a splinter group from the Futurian Society of Sydney
1954, Apr 17-18	Third Australian Science Fiction Convention
1955, Mar 18-20	Fourth Australian Science Fiction Convention
1967	Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton visited Australia
1967, Dec 6	Sydney Science Fiction Foundation formed
1970, Jan 1-3	First Syncon
1972, Aug 11-13	Syncon 2 (Natcon)
1975, Jan	Syncon '75 (Natcon)
1975	Galaxy Bookshop opened at 106a Bathurst Street.
1976	Doctor Who Club of Australia formed (as the Australasian Dr. Who Fan Club)
1979, Jan 27-29	Unicon V
1979, Aug	Syncon '79 (Natcon)
1980	A History of Australian Fandom, 1935-1963 published
1981, Jan	The Chronicles first published
1982, Feb 13-14	First Medtrek convention held
1983, June 10-13	Syncon '83 (Natcon)
1984, Mar 10-11	Medtrek '84 (Media Natcon)
1984, Nov 25	Who-Do 84 (first National Doctor Who Convention)
1985	Galaxy Bookshop moved to 203b Castlereagh Street
1987, July 3-6	Eccentricon (Media Natcon) held in Richmond, NSW
1988, June 10-13	Syncon '88, Conviction (Natcon)
1991, Oct 4-7	Medtrek IV held in Richmond, NSW
1991	Infinitas Bookshop opened
1992, Apr 17-20	Syncon '92 (Natcon)
1993	Galaxy Bookshop moved to 222 Clarence Street
1994, Apr 22	Futurian Society of Sydney revived (again)
1995. June 6	Dymocks SF Store opened
1998, July 11-12	Phancon '98
ca. 2000	Dymocks SF Store closed
2002	Galaxy Bookshop moved to 143 York Street
2011, Apr 8-10	Nullus Anxietas 3
2011	Galaxy Bookshop moved to Level 1, 131 York Street
2012	Infinitas Bookshop closed doors (continuing online)
2014, Nov 16	SciFi Film Festival first held
2015, Apr 10-12	Nullus Anxietas V
2015, Nov 21-22	Doctor Who Festival
2020, Nov 19-21	Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival started
2021, Dec	Nullus Anxietas 7a cancelled (It had been postponed from Jul 2-4.)
2026	Nullus Anxietas X

---

Locale

This is a locale page. Please extend it by adding information about the city, state, or country, the history of fandom in this locale, major fans, clubs, conventions, good stories, etc. See Standards for Locales.