Australian National Science Fiction Convention

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 1999ASFMA Award - Wikipedia. 
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 ConventionsAustralian Natcon - Fancyclopedia 3==
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
62 	May 17-19 2024 	Continuum 16: Reboot 	Melbourne	Shannon Chakraborty, Vanessa Len, and Cienan Muir.
==Archives & Resources==
*Australian Natcon on Fancyclopedia
*Wikipedia:Australian National Science Fiction Convention
Category:1952 Conventions
Category:1950s Conventions
Category:1960s Conventions
Category:1970s Conventions
Category:1980s Conventions
Category:1990s Conventions
Category:2000s Conventions
Category:2010s Conventions
Category:2020s Conventions
Category:Science Fiction ConventionsCategory:Conventions in Australia