WA fans at AussieCon 4

by Anna Hepworth

Were you at AussieCon 4 (2010)? According to my records, there were 128 Western Australian resident fans (defined as people who have a bed in WA and had slept in it within the preceeding 12 months) who stepped up to have their name added to the Obsessive List of WA fans, plus 14 adults who did not have their names added to the list (either because they did not make themselves known to me, or because they are Grumpy Old Farts), and five children who were not added because they were younger than school age.

Why do I have the count in my head? Because very early on at AussieCon 4, someone commented on the large number of Perth* fans that they had seen. And me, being the obsessive counting type that I am, started numbering people. I kept a list**, and for those who were willing, I wrote a number on the back of their hand. Of those that I recognised I clearly remember one refusing, and there is a second that I *think* refused. One person was willing to be included in the list, but not physically numbered. By 24 hours into the convention, people were accosting me on the stairs, and introducing themselves.

And then there were those who are WA people but they just don’t live there anymore, and don’t fit the above criteria – 14 numbered, and 8 that we spotted in passing. I’m told that my ability to differentiate these from actual residents was a bit dodgy – I was taking people’s words for it, and at least one person was unhappy that they were on this list, rather than the other, when someone who has not lived in WA for longer than they was in the general list.

If I count that right, that is 169 people. If our collective dodgy memories are right, the attending membership was between two and two and a half thousand adults. Which is somewhere between 6 and 9 % of the attending membership. Not bad, for a state that gets three to four hundred people at its local convention (ie SwanCon).

* yes, they said Perth. They may have been referring to Western Australians, but if they were talking about people they generally see at SwanCon, they might be forgiven for this mistake.
** Names on this list will only be made public with the express permission of the people involved.

 

Many many Perth fans on the stairs at the Melbourne Convention centre

How many Perth fans can you fit on a Melbourne staircase?

If you are willing to have your name included on a public list detailing who is in this photograph (or those who were unable to make it for the photograph), please comment either here, or at the flickr page.

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4 Responses to WA fans at AussieCon 4

  1. Mike Thompson says:

    More than happy to be counted. That was a fantastic convention, my first for quite a while 🙂

  2. Owen Wylde says:

    Please name me: That was my 4th Worldcon.

  3. Shay Telfer says:

    Fe and I and kid(s) arrive seconds after this photo was taken

  4. Pingback: Aussiecon 4, Voice of the Echidna, Issue 6 – Saturday Afternoon (synopsis) | history.sf.org.au

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