Ellen Hamlyn-Harris

Fan
Name:	Ellen ("Elley") Lesley Mary Hamlyn-Harris
Alias(es):	Elley Michaelson
Type:	zine editor, fan club founder
Fandoms:	science fiction, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Barbra Streisand
Communities:	Austrek, Doctor Who Club of Victoria,
Other:
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Elley (right), with Angela Hanslik (and Jeff Mitchell in background) at "the Crock", 5 June 1979.

Ellen ("Elley") Hamlyn-Harris (formerly Michaelson) (22 June 1956 - 9 August 2016) was a welcoming and well-known science fiction fan and who lived in Melbourne, Australia.

She became involved in the local science fiction community in the late 1970s, and Judith McGinness recalls her as one of the founding members of the Doctor Who Club of Victoria. Significantly, Elley offered to host club meetings at her house.

Elley also became prominent in Austrek, serving as committee member and editor of the Spock fanzine. However, it is probably her spirit of hospitality for which Elley is most fondly remembered. Early members of Austrek will recall weekend events at her home in Crockford Street, Port Melbourne, which came to be known as "the Crock". Weekend-long social gatherings comprised whoever turned up, especially young people who were empowered to feel welcome and safe. Often, Elley offered her house as a base from which people (from across town or across the state) could reconnoitre, attend club meetings or Star Trek Marathons and then have a safe place to socialise, party, and "crash" for the entire weekend. Some of those people will also recall gatherings at which they would watch premiere episodes of Doctor Who, Blakes 7 or other SF programs on her television, and discuss the show together.

Sue Bursztynski recalls parties where everyone danced the Time Warp around Elley's tiny living room. She also recalls Elley's hospitality extending to AussieTrek, a Sydney convention:

"It was at a con in Sydney, where we all shared a room, because fans did that in those days. We had very little money. I'm sure the hotel staff were suspicious, but they didn't check on us - and we were a lot quieter and better-behaved than, say, businessmen there for a conference. But... it was a case of whoever got there in time to use the bed. The rest of us slept in sleeping-bags on the floor. One of us - not Elley, but someone among the fifteen - persuaded George [Takei] to come along to a room party, where he asked us to sing "Waltzing Matilda" but we had to keep stopping to explain, because the song sounds like another language if you don't know Australian English. A very nice man, by the way.

Elley left fandom sometime in the 1980s, whereupon she married and raised a family. She passed away in 2016 and a number of her old fan friends attended her funeral. She is buried in Williamstown Cemetery in Melbourne.