The Melbourne Science Fiction Club Inc. (Also known as the M.S.F.C. or colloquially "the club") was founded in May 1952 by

Race Mathews Charles Race Thorson Mathews (27 March 1935 – 5 May 2025) was an Australian politician, academic, author and reformer. He was a member of Australia's Federal Parliament and the Victorian State Parliament for the Australian Labor Party (ALP ...

and others. It is the second oldest continuously active

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

club in the world, after the

Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc., or LASFS, is a science fiction fandom#Science fiction societies, science fiction and fantasy fan society that meets in the Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles area. The current meeting place can be f ...

. It meets once a month in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

History

Members of the MSFC were instrumental in organising and running three

World Science Fiction Convention Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

s in Australia: Aussiecon in 1975; Aussiecon Two in 1985; and Aussiecon 3 in 1999. Current members were involved in the Aussiecon 4 Worldcon in 2010. Members have also been involved in running many of the annual versions of the Australian National Science Fiction Conventions and other regional conventions in and around Melbourne, Australia. Many members of Australian

Science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

have been members of the MSFC. Notable members/past-members of the MSFC include Merv Binns (SF fan, editor, fanzine publisher and proprietor of Australia's first specialist SF bookshop, Space Age Books) Ian Gunn, (Past president and club fanzine editor) winner of the

Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist The Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist is given each year for artists of works related to science fiction or fantasy which appeared in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines. A Hugo Award for professional artists is also gi ...

1999,

Lee Harding Lee Harding (born 8 June 1983) is an Australian singer from Frankston, Victoria. He is best known for placing third in the Australian Idol (season 3), third season of ''Australian Idol'' in 2005. Career Bedrock Prior to competing in ''Australi ...

Damien Broderick Damien Francis Broderick (22 April 1944 – 19 April 2025) was an Australian science fiction and popular science writer and editor of some 74 books. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' credits him with the first usage of the term ''virtual ...

, Alan Stewart (secretary for 16 years and

Ditmar Award The Ditmar Award (formally the Australian SF ("Ditmar") Award; formerly the "Australian Science Fiction Achievement Award") has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention (the "Natcon") to recognise ...

winner), Cheryl Morgan (editor of the

Hugo Award for Best Fanzine The Hugo Award for Best Fanzine is given each year for non professionally edited magazines, or "fanzines", related to science fiction or fantasy which has published four or more issues with at least one issue appearing in the previous calendar y ...

winning fanzine, ''

Emerald City The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's ''Oz'' books, first described in '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). Fictional description Located in the center of ...

''), Phil Wlodarczyk, Martin James Ditmar ("Dick") Jenssen (after whom the

is named), Bruce Gillespie (Fan Guest of Honour at the 1999 World Science Fiction Convention Aussiecon 3), John Bangsund and

who later became a Minister in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. The MSFC has a library of over 8,000 volumes and a huge collection of fanzines, which is currently in storage. It is listed as a special library for researchers and has a computer catalogue of approximately 5,500 titles. Work continues on the catalogue. There have been several club

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s including the 1950s newszine ''Etherline''. Late in the sixties came the ''Somerset Gazette'', until at least January 1971. After ''Somerset Gazette'' there was no official club

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

in the seventies. Since 1985 the MSFC has published ''Ethel the Aardvark'', a newszine which has won the

– several times under editors including Alan Stewart, Ian Gunn, and Paul Ewins – and the Chronos Award. As of October 2022, issues 1–14 and 185–216, published 1985–87 and 2017 to present, have been reprinted online.

References

External links

* Science fiction organizations Science fiction fandom Organizations established in 1952 1952 establishments in Australia {{sf-org-stub