Julie Hughes

Fan
Name:	Julie Hughes
Alias(es):
Type:	Fan, Editor, Cosplay
Fandoms:	Star Trek, Star Wars
Communities:	Austrek, Star Walking, Trekcon, Galactic Tours
Other:
URL:
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Julie Hughes (right) and Alison Wallace (left) in Romulan costumes at an Austrek meeting on 1 April 1989 (photo by Jan MacNally).

Julie Hughes (d. 2 August 2024) was an Australian Star Trek and Star Wars fan. She was involved in running clubs and conventions, cosplaying in Romulan attire, and editing fanzines and newsletters.

Early Days in Fandom

Julie recalled her introduction to fandom via her involvement in Austrek:

I first became interested in Star Trek in 1977 during my 12-month stay in Swan Hill. Out of sheer boredom I started borrowing books from the local library and came across James Blish’s episode adaptations. Little did I know where this would lead to! Seventeen years later I have nearly every novel published. I have made some wonderful friendships, mourned dear departed fan friends but had a hell of a lot of fun on the way.

In 1978, after attending a few meetings I was shanghaied onto the committee due to lack of numbers. My friend Marion was the Austrek secretary, and I used to drive her to the committee meetings. I have recollections of sitting in Russell Edward’s freezing cold lounge room and having our General Meetings at the Women’s Temperance Hall (AKA The Dungeon) on the site of today’s Hyatt Hotel. The Captain’s Log (all four pages) was typed on a stencil and duplicated on a spirit copier. We used to get about 30 people to our general meetings and we would fill our days with games, trivia questions, jellybean fights, making the notorious movie “City on The Edge Of The Yarra”, generally chatting, speculating and fantasising about Star Trek.

Leadership in Fandom

She worked as a general committee member on the Austrek committee until 1982, when she stepped up to become club President. Club co-founder Geoff Allshorn recalls:

I knew Julie well in the early days. As a new member, she stepped forward to become president at a time (1982) when the club was facing extreme challenges. She became a hardworking and dedicated president, running the club and conventions, and impressing everyone with her friendliness. I also remember her cheeky sense of humour through club meetings featuring court martials, Romulan insurrections, and visits to the local fire brigade to get film of riding a fire engine. As a human being, she was approachable and friendly and polite, and always welcoming and inclusive.

Under her Presidency, the club grew stronger and larger, as she recalled:

The move to St Luke’s Church Hall came around 1982-83 when the sheer weight of numbers squeezed us out. It was about this time we started harassing the general populace by flaunting our costumes. The movie premieres of Star Trek III and IV saw a massed crowd of 30 fans in Romulan, Starfleet (Human and Andorian) amid Klingons in the City Square before we set off to terrorise the Pancake Parlour, Hungry Jacks and Myer Melbourne. Memories return of the human barrier between Robert Jan (Austrek member) and the innocent bystanders who nearly had eyes poked out by his pointy shoulders. It was a real scream because then people looked twice, now they don’t even look.

The Captain’s Log was typed on anybody’s typewriter and consisted of 10-15 pages (it was growing!) and was printed by the Dandenong Youth Employment Scheme. Committee meetings were very intense but enjoyable as there were so many ideas but very little time to do them in. The General Meetings were very creative, specialising in make-up effects, constituting (no-one kept secrets), charity auctions, slave and villain auctions, hobby days, mini Olympics, the original spot the brain cell with the original Craig Hooper, car rallies, court martials and the original bush wars (created by myself and Alison Wallace after watching “skirmish”). These led to hysterical and sometimes physical meetings which were filled with such camaraderie.

Darren Maxwell recalls Julie and her friend Alison Wallace from the 1980s:

Julie Hughes (left) and Alison Wallace advertise the con hotel for the Galactic Tours convention (photo by Helena Binns and used with her family's permission)

I first met Julie at the Star Trek III preview screening at the Forum Cinema on 14 October 1984, and it was here a number of people, including Julie, were wearing Wrath of Khan Starfleet costumes to promote Austrek. As fortune would have it, it was actually Julie who directed me to the cinema ticket box to pick up an Austrek membership form. After becoming active within Austrek, the one thing I was totally oblivious to was knowing the president of the club was actually Julie herself, but you would never have guessed it. Instead of reveling in the glory as an upfront presenter or club meeting host, she intentionally shied away from the limelight preferring instead to perform all her duties in the background. Indeed this was a quality I always respected because she was never driven by ego or fame, which in a fan club committee can be quite rare. As I got to know Julie better, she always struck me as a softly spoken ‘straight shooter’ because, as noted by others, she didn’t suffer fools lightly and could be very direct and forthright when the need called for it. Yet despite being a quiet achiever, she was immensely reliable when it came to getting tasks done for fan clubs and conventions, especially as her fandom life was one she cherished and thrived in. Moreover, once she was bonded with her compatriot in arms, Alison Wallace, it was clear theirs was a friendship which was going to be both everlasting and enduring.

Cosplay

Julie and Alison also became known for their costumes:

... Despite being content to stay in the shadows, Julie’s image took an almighty boost when she and Alison shed their Starfleet cosplay persona and formed the Rihannsu, the Romulan Occupation Force. From their premiere appearance in the costume parade at the Galactic Tours convention in March 1986, the Rihannsu, with Julie and Alison at the helm, became a tour de force in the realm of Australian Star Trek cosplay. Although members of the group came and went over the journey, Julie and Alison remained committed to promoting the Rihannsu with numerous cosplay appearances at conventions for many years, usually in outfits of their own design. Yet it’s the costumes they made for the Trekcon IV Star Trek convention in 1990 where they will be best remembered - appearing on stage to waves of applause in metal armour made from copper! This was not only the Rihannsu at its peak, but it was Julie and Alison’s greatest cosplay achievement.

Other Fandom

Julie and her friend Alison Wallace eventually made a transition to Star Wars fandom:

during the first quarter of the 1990s, Austrek itself began to evolve and change, particularly once The Next Generation became the Star Trek series of choice for many Australian fans. As a consequence, Julie and Alison realised it was time to seek both greener pastures and new challenges in another corner of fandom. Somewhat poetically, it could be argued they followed in the footsteps of their conspiratorial onscreen Romulan namesakes, in that they shifted allegiances from one ‘Star’ fandom to another, in this case from Star Trek to Star Wars. With Julie and Alison now an integral part of the Star Wars fan club Star Walking Inc., they once again applied their trade as organisers and go getters with a new level of enthusiasm and gusto, which in turn resulted in Star Walking Inc. effectively becoming a global Star Wars ‘power club’.

Shane Morrissey, founder of Star Walking Inc., became a friend:

Julie did love a practical joke being played, usually on me, with crazy mad antics involving Gladwrap, oil and public humiliation at a certain SA media con. Always there are two - a Rom and another Rom. Julie was a comrade in crime with Alison Wallace always. Once you were friends with Julie, she had your back and was loyal. Julie was on the Star Walking Inc. committee for 11 years (including the executive committee and the social arm, Skyforce). Given her love of port, it was no surprise it was her idea for the SWInc fundraiser to be “Space Port” (a bottle of this is kept at Rancho Obi-Wan Star Wars Museum in America).

Vale

After a 19-year battle with cancer, Julie died on 2 August 2024, with her devoted husband Pete by her side.

Gallery

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  Julie Hughes and Tony Nathan oversee operations in the dealers' room of the Galactic Tours convention, 1986 (photo by Helena Binns and used with her family's permission)

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  Julie with Alison Wallace and Gail Adams in costume for the Austrek Xmas Party in 1987 (photo by Helena Binns and used with her family's permission)

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  Alison Wallace (left) and Julie (right) as Romulans at Conspire in 1989 (photo by Jan MacNally).