Doctor Who Club of Victoria

Fan Club
Name:	Doctor Who Club of Victoria (also known as "Doctor Who Fan Club of Victoria")
Dates:	1979-present
Founder(s):	Various; commonly (but inaccurately) attributed to Adrienne Losin
Leadership:
Country based in:	Australia
Focus:	Doctor Who
External Links:	current club website, Archived version
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The Doctor Who Club of Victoria is based in Victoria, Australia and has published a few Doctor Who zines.

From their About Page:

"The Doctor Who Club Of Victoria (DWCV) was formed in 1979 as a result of a appearance by the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, at Doncaster Shoppingtown. The first meetings were held at various homes around Melbourne. There were no VCRs available in those days; meetings consisted mostly of showing off merchandise, wearing long scarves and lots of talking. Adrienne Losin produced a publication, The Victorian Time Machine, and later in the year we had our first convention in a church hall in Fitzroy. The following year, it became clear that a committee was needed to administer our soaring membership, and this was formed in June 1980 with John Davies as our first President. The Club was incorporated in 1981.

A new monthly publication, Sonic Screwdriver, was launched and an occasional fanzine, Supervoc, which consisted mainly of quality fan fiction and illustrations. In the years that followed, the increasing membership began meeting at larger venues such as Moonee Ponds Town Hall and Melbourne University, and our annual Christmas parties became legendary. We have hosted many conventions, with guests such as Sophie Aldred, Robert Jewell, Dudley Simpson, Sandra Reid, Lalla Ward, David Banks-Stewart and Sylvester McCoy, and we have collaborated with professional convention organisers...."

The club is still very much active.

Founding

Tom Baker in Doncaster, Melbourne, 1979 (photo by Judith McGinness).

Co-founder Judith McGinness later recalled Tom Baker's visit to Melbourne, and how this led to the forming of the club:

I read he was coming to Doncaster Shoppingtown, and it was in the early days of shops being open until nine o’clock at night...

So I got out of work and when I arrived, I think he already started the book signing and there were a lot of people around doing late night closing on a Friday night, lots of families...

Then at the end, when he packed up, it was mostly families just shopping there, and then there were people like me who had gone there on purpose. I suppose there might have been about a dozen of us, all teens and 20s. We just spoke to each other, started a conversation like, “Oh, what did he say to you? How long have you been watching it?” You know, the usual stuff. So we all got very matey standing there in the Shoppingtown. Then somebody says, “Is there a Doctor Who club?”, “No, I haven’t heard of any.”, “Oh, there ought to be one. Why don’t we start one?” And that’s it, that’s exactly what happened. That would have been me, actually who said that. And look at it now. We’re still here 44 years later.

She also recalled some of those involved in the early days:

Adrienne Losin was there and said, “Well, it’s Anzac Day next week, a public holiday. Come over to my place and we’ll talk about it.” She lived with her parents, as we all did in those days, that’s how young we all were. She lived in Ringwood and taught at the Croydon High School. So a whole lot of us went over there, and it was very exciting. Just to have other people to talk to about Doctor Who. That’s the first time I met Ellie and Tessie, Ellie was a legend. She came with a whole lot of people from Austrek, it was a bit of an overlap of interest you see. There were a couple of other people come to help out. Doug McLeod, a writer, he died recently, he ended up running The Comedy Company and lots of other things. Then there was a kid called Graham Jones who was only 14 and was one of Adrienne’s students who was a huge fan. It was very productive. I asked, “Okay, so right, we’re going to start our club. When’s the next meeting?” And Ellie says, “We can have it this time next month at my place.” She lived in Port Melbourne...

The Club itself started with meetings at people’s houses, sometimes in my flat in Altona. Then we spread ourselves around different suburbs so everybody could get a chance not to have to go far. We did that for a while, it worked out wonderfully well. Then we had our first Convention in a little Church Hall down St Kilda Road. It was still 1979, the Convention was just club members, really just a place to hang out, and we put things around the place, displays of our Target books and so on, everyone was wearing scarves etc. Really memorable.

1980s

June 1980 Dr Who Convention in Sydney with John Pertwee and fans (from left) Adrienne Losin, Judith Houston, Alan Greenway and Barbara Billett (photo supplied by Judith McGinness).

After Adrienne began to publish The Victorian Time Machine and led club activities, other club members began to plan a club reform in 1980 Judith McGinniss recalls:

As the months went on, we’re having these little meetings, many people are joining, they’re telling all their schoolmates, and families are joining. Average age was mid-teens to mid-twenties, High School. So a few people said to Adrienne, “Look, we really need more people that want to volunteer to help, because it’s too big for one person.” So we investigated and found that the Club had to have a Committee, so we held a meeting and that was elected.

John Edwards Davies, the first elected club president, later recalled those early days:

In May 1980, Barbara Billett, Judith Houston and I were elected as an Interim Committee as; Treasurer, Secretary & President respectively,

We succeeded in transforming the club from being a one person operation into one administered by a constitutionally governed committee. We continued to hold monthly meetings, produce our own regular newsletter, Sonic Screwdriver and the occasional fanzine, Supervoc.

1990s

In the mid-to-late 1990s, it was a member of the Multiverse Science Fiction Group. During the 2020s, it networks with other media SF clubs such as Star Walking Inc and Austrek.

In 1993, one of their flyers went astray and ended up on the Blake's 7 forum on FidoNet raising suspicions about legitimacy.

Publications

• The Victorian Time Machine
• Nemesis
• Supervoc
• Sonic Screwdriver