Australian National Science Fiction Convention

Convention
Name:	Australian National Science Fiction Convention
Dates:	flexible, but generally around March/April
Frequency:	annually
Location:	Australia
Type:	fan-run fan Natcon with guests
Focus:	Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror
Organization:	None
Founder:	Bill Veney - first chair, 1952
Founding Date:	1952
URL:	Fancyclopedia 3
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a flyer for the 1990 media con, "Huttcon"

The Australian National Science Fiction Convention (aka "Natcon") is an annual science fiction convention which first took place in Sydney in 1952. Since 1969, the Ditmar Award has been awarded at the con.

Unlike many conventions, Natcon is not run by one specific professional group or fanclub. Every year, bids are accepted for fan convention committees to host the convention two years in advance; the members are voted in by attendees of the Con. Committee members must not be affiliated with any nationally-run fannish body. A separate Australian National Media Convention was run between 1984 and 1997, but it (and the Australian Science Fiction Media Awards) were folded into Natcon in 1999.

Those fancon committees who win the hosting bid win the honour of their con being considered the national fancon for that year. The first 11 years (aside from Olympicon in 1956, the year Melbourne hosted the Summer Olympic Games) it was held as the Australian Science Fiction Convention, alternating between the Sydney and Melbourne committees. Since 1971, it has "bounced" around between the SynCon committee in Sydney (not to confused with SydCon, which is now a roleplaying convention), the SwanCon committee in Perth, Advention in Adelaide and a number of smaller conventions in Melbourne, Canberra (CapCon, then ConFlux), Brisbane and Hobart (Thylacon, named after the extinct Tasmanian Tiger or "thylacine").

The conventions were not without their drama, usually stemming from the Ditmar Awards. For further information see Ditmar Award#Best Fannish Cat and Ditmar Award#Stuffed Cane Toads

List of Conventions

No.	Date	Convention	Location	Guests of Honour
1	March 22, 1952	First Australian Science Fiction Convention	Sydney	(none)
2	May 1-3, 1953	Second Australian Science Fiction Convention	Sydney	(none)
3	April 17-18, 1954	Third Australian Science Fiction Convention	Sydney	(none)
4	March 18-20, 1955	Fourth Australian Science Fiction Convention	Sydney	Arthur C. Clarke
5	December 8-9, 1956	Olympicon	Melbourne	Frank Bryning
6	April 5-6, 1958	Sixth Australian Science Fiction Convention	Melbourne	(none)
7	April 8-11, 1966	Seventh Australian Science Fiction Convention	Melbourne	(none)
8	April 4-6, 1969	Eighth Australian Science Fiction Convention	Melbourne	Lee Harding and (fan) John Foyster
9	March 27-30, 1970	Ninth Australian Science Fiction Convention	Melbourne	(none)
10	January 1-2, 1971	Tenth Australian Science Fiction Convention	Melbourne	(fan) Robin Johnson
11	August 11-13, 1972	Syncon 2	Sydney	Lesleigh Luttrell (DUFF winner)
12	August 17-19, 1973	Advention 2	Adelaide	John Foyster
13	August 16-18, 1974	Ozcon	Melbourne	Merv Binns and (fan) John Bangsund
14	January 24-27, 1975	Syncon '75	Sydney	(none)
15	August 13-15, 1976	Bofcon	Melbourne	(none)
16	July 29-31, 1977	A-Con 7	Adelaide	Bill Rotsler
17	March 24-27, 1978	Unicon IV	Melbourne	Brian Aldiss, Roger Zelazny
18	August 10-13, 1979	Syncon '79	Sydney	Gordon R. Dickson, Ken Fletcher (DUFF winner), Linda Lounsbury (DUFF winner), Kouichi Yamamoto
19	August 15-18, 1980	Swancon 5	Perth	Anne McCaffrey, Shayne McCormack, Grant Stone
20	June 6-8, 1981	Advention '81	Adelaide	Frank Herbert, John Ossian, K. U. F. Widdershins
21	April 9-12, 1982	Tschaicon	Melbourne	Jack Vance, Leanne Frahm, Eric Lindsay
22	June 10-13, 1983	Syncon '83	Sydney	Harlan Ellison, Van Ikin
23	April 20-23, 1984	Eureka!con	Melbourne	George Turner
24	April 5-8, 1985	Advention '85	Adelaide	Lee Harding
25	March 28-31, 1986	Swancon XI	Perth	C. J. Cherryh, Jack Herman
26	April 24-27, 1987	Capcon	Canberra	Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, and (fan) John Newman
27	June 10-13, 1988	Conviction (Syncon '88)	Sydney	Spider Robinson, Jeanne Robinson, Carey Handfield
28	March 23-27, 1989	Swancon 14	Perth	John Varley and (fan) Paul J. Stevens
29	April 13-16, 1990	Danse Macabre	Melbourne	George R. R. Martin, Eric Lindsay
30	March 29 - April 1, 1991	SunCon	Brisbane	Patrick Tilley, Harlan Ellison (absent), Leigh Edmonds
31	April 17-20, 1992	Syncon '92	Sydney	Michael Whelan, Nick Stathopoulos
32	April 8-12, 1993	Swancon 18	Perth	Terry Pratchett and (fan) Craig Hilton
33	April 1-4, 1994	Constantinople	Melbourne	William Gibson, Kate Orman, and (fans) Bruce Gillespie, and Julie Edge & Martin Edge
34	June 9-12, 1995	Thylacon 1	Hobart	Kim Stanley Robinson, Peter Nicholls, Grant Stone
35	April 4-8, 1996	Festival of the Imagination 1996	Perth	Storm Constantine, Neil Gaiman
36	Sept 27-28, 1997	Basicon 2	Melbourne	(no one or everyone)
37	June 5-8, 1998	Thylacon 2	Hobart	George R. R. Martin, Leanne Frahm
38	Sept 2-6, 1999	SpawnCon Two	Melbourne	(none)
39	April 20-24, 2000	Swancon 2000 (Swancon 25)	Perth	Connie Willis, Robin Hobb, Garth Nix, Ian Nichols
40	April 12-16, 2001	Swancon 2001: Masquerade	Perth	Robert Silverberg, Karen Haber, Rosaleen Love, Marilyn Pride, Lewis Morley, Kate Orman, Sue Ackermann
41	June 7-10, 2002	Convergence 2002	Melbourne	Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, Lucy Sussex, Sean Williams, and (fan) Race Mathews
42	April 17-21, 2003	Swancon 2003	Perth	Lynn Flewelling, Tony Shillitoe, Fiona McIntosh, and (fan) Justin Ackroyd
43	April 23-26, 2004	Conflux 1	Canberra	Greg Benford, Sean McMullen, and (fan) Karen Herkes
44	June 10-13, 2005	Thylacon 2005 (Thylacon IV)	Hobart	Anne Bishop, Marianne de Pierres, and (fan) Merv Binns
45	April 14-17, 2006	Conjure	Brisbane	Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, Sean Williams, Jonathan Strahan, and (fan) Erika Maria Lacey
46	June 8–11, 2007	Convergence 2	Melbourne	Isobelle Carmody, Fred Gallagher, Dave Freer, and (fan) Cath Ortlieb
47	March 20–24, 2008	Swancon 2008: State of the Art	Perth	Ken Macleod, Rob Shearman, Glenda Larke, and (fan) Zara Baxter
48	June 5–8, 2009	Conjecture	Adelaide	Julie E. Czerneda, and (fans) Steve Scholz & Catherine Scholz
49	Sept 2–6, 2010	Dudcon III	Melbourne	Peter Watts, Helen Merrick, and (fan) Jacob Blake
50	April 21–25, 2011	Swancon Thirty Six / Natcon Fifty	Perth	Ellen Datlow, Justina Robson, Sean Williams, and (fan) Sarah Xu
51	June 8-11, 2012	Continuum 8: Craftonomicon	Melbourne	Kelly Link, Alison Goodman, and (fan) Sue Ann Barber
52	April 25-28, 2013	Conflux 9	Canberra	Nalo Hopkinson, Marc Gascoigne, Karen Miller, and (fan) Rose Mitchell
53	June 6-9, 2014	Continuum X: Carnival of Lost Souls	Melbourne	Jim C. Hines, Ambelin Kwaymullina, and (fans) Danny Oz & Sharon Moseley
54	April 2-6, 2015	Swancon 40	Perth	John Scalzi, Kylie Chan, and (fan) Anthony Peacey
55	March 25-28, 2016	Contact2016	Brisbane	Ben Aaronovitch, Keri Arthur, Maria Lewis and (fans) Jill Pantozzi and Kirilee Barker
56	June 9-12, 2017	Continuum 13: Triskaidekaphilia	Melbourne	Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant and Likhain, DUFF Delegate: Paul Weimer
57	March 29 - April 2, 2018	Swancon 2018	Perth	Kameron Hurley, Ryan Griffen, Emily Smith, Foz Meadows, and (fan) Barb de la Hunty
58	June 7-10, 2019	Continuum 15: Other Worlds	Melbourne	Kate Elliott, Ken Liu
59	April 25-27, 2020 (cancelled due to the Covid-19 epidemic)	Swancon 2020	Perth	Nalini Singh, John Robertson
60	September 30-October 3, 2022	Conflux 16: Visions of Time	Canberra	John Birmingham, Amie Kaufman, Daniel O'Malley, Lisa Fuller, Tom Buckland
61	September 29-October 2, 2023	Conflux 17: Passages and Portals	Canberra	Amie Kaufman, Grace Chan, Lisa Fuller, Ellen Datlow

Archives & Resources

• Australian Natcon on Fancyclopedia
• Wikipedia:Australian National Science Fiction Convention