AustLit

Bert F. Castellari attended Randwick Intermediate High School and while there struck up a friendship with William D. Veney, Ron Brennan and Ron Lane. All four were passionate about science fiction and while still at school produced Spacehounds, a handwritten publication which featured fan fiction. While the fanzine only ran for ten issues it nevertheless served to incite further publishing attempts and attract the attention of other fans, notably Bob Meleski, Vol Molesworth and brothers Eric and Ted Russell. In 1939 Veney, Molesworth, Castellari and the Russells founded the Futurian Society of Sydney (F.S.S.), the Sydney being added to distinguish it from several other Futurian societies located in the USA.

In early 1940, as the Society began to already splinter into factions, Castellari and Veney (as joint editors) published the first issue of Futurian Observer, a foolscap-sized zine which was typed and duplicated on both sides. The zine had a print run of 57 issues between January 1940 and March 1942 (ceasing only when both editors were called up for active war duty). Castellari was also actively involved in helping to set up the first national science fiction fan society, the Futurian Federation of Australia.