Third Sydney Conference

The Third Sydney Conference was an early convention held in Sydney, NSW, Australia, on January 4, 1942. Eight fen attended.

Vol Molesworth reported in Triton 3 (1949, p. 13):

The Third Syd. Fan Con. was held on January 4, 1942, "to discuss any mat­ters relating to science fiction fandom." Eight fans turned up - Jack Hannan, Bert F. Castellari, the Russell brothers [Eric and Edward], Arthur Duncan, Colin Roden, Graham Stone, and William D. Veney (who planned and presided over the gathering). Reporting this conference, Futurian Observer said: "A number of matters were brought forward; discussion on some was bright, on others it was dull. The latter was probably due to the fact that so few had attended, but despite this the conference did get something done. We are pleased to report that there was no sign of hostility between any of the fans present; there were no cracks - only those meant in jest."

After discussing Australian representation at the U. S. convention, the conference went into the question of the Futurian Fed. of Australia and rec­ommended that it should remain a purely non-active organization. And then per­haps a most ambitious undertaking was made - to find a better, more descriptive title for the literature known as "science fiction". Many of those present stated that they believed "science fiction" was not a sufficiently covering term for stf. The result of the discussion on the matter was that no one could offer a suitable substitute. The hunted word was described as follows: It indicates that stf is scientific, that it is literature of a sort, and the word must be dignified.

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Second Sydney Conference	Sydney Conference	last
	1942

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