Vintage Science Fiction from Australian Newspapers

List of Vintage Science Fiction Data

• Australia Advanced or Dialogues for the Year 2032
  Dialogues set in the future but are only a slight extrapolation of the 1832 present
• My Grandfather's Narrative of The Siege of Sydney
  Short story set in 1911. A volunteer talks about his experience in the 1861 siege. A propaganda story ending with a message encouraging volunteering.
• Prospective History A Chapter Taken from the Future History of Victoria Time April 1868
  Political satire featuring sudden increase in native industries. A massive fence built along the coast and various social development predictions under a future dictator.
• The Second Armada A Chapter of Future History
  Set 3 years later so not much has changed. A battle is fought and one. SF only as it's in the future. A two column story. Queensland along with the British were fighting the Frontier Wars so this could be a recruitment article.
• Reminiscences of a Volunteer A. D. 1925. The Battle of Dorking
  A war set in 1921 ending the British empire.
• A Voyage to the Sun
  A space ship journeys to the sun and the narrative gives scientific explanations. A short simple story of 2 chapters.
• The Threatened Bombardment
  Russian war fleet attack on Melbourne (satirical and political)
• A Courtship of the Future. A Provision of A. D. 2876.
  A satirical love poem
• Mr. Spence's account of the Russian Invasion. A.D. 1898. The Battle of Eagle Farm
  Future War set in 1898. Mr Spence's account of the Russian Invasion. Queensland was involved in the frontier wars so this could be a recruitment story.
• Economical Love
  A mechanical girl is sold to a drover for 1000 pounds. She can sing but needs winding up every 24 hours. She tells the buyer that she can only love him. The merchant promises she will stay the same for at least 20 years but doesn't like heat. Someone who doesn't know she is an automaton falls in love with her and steals her but she stops moving the next day and he thinks she's dead. In an afterword the author summarises what happens next and advises the story cannot continue as a result.
• The Electric Spark
  Chapter 1 of The Novels of the Future. The first story features lovers enhancing their kiss with electricity.
• A Dark Deed
  Chapter 2 of The Novels of the Future. The second story a wife adds a lightning tablet containing electricity fluid to her husband's coffee then kills him with a battery
• The Attack Upon Sydney. A Page from the History of the Future
  French attack Sydney. Electricians and electric lights discussed. Noiseless torpedo boat engines boats and other vehicles with electric lights and a huge and fast British ship rechristened City of Sydney. A fiction story advising Sydney to get her military more men and equipment and defensive positions.
• The Cloud King or Up in the Air and Down in the Sea
  An aeoronaut travels around the world in an advanced balloon describing overcoming science and engineering problems and meeting advanced and unusual civilisations
• A Weaponless World
  Philosophical and theoretical discussions about the circular nature of time and suggestions of de ja vu are remembering the previous repeated cycle. Ends with character being struck by an aerolite (meteorite)
• A New Palingenesis
  Describes the transfer of the soul's electrical energy to a receptacle and back again with pages of scientific explanations.
• A World Divided: A Tale of Two Hemispheres. By An Observer in Mars, A. D. 2000
  The World splits in two through London and Melbourne and is destroyed. Political satire with SF ideas. 11 chapters
• The Awful Cataclysm in Ireland
  An invention that destroys half of ireland drilling miles deep. A similar story appeared as Doctor Who Inferno in 1970 reinforcing the science fiction theme of the vintage concept.
• Prof. Vehr's Electrical Experiment
  A professor creates a glass bell infused with an extrostatic liquid that not only induces the ability of a user to conduct remote viewing but once the location is confirmed dissolves their atoms and reconstitutes them at the location with the ability to not only bring them back but also another with them. A young lover attempts to retrieve his love from another city but on returning the machine explodes and the narrator has not been able to find them since. A more etheric form of teleportation.
• Love and Learning. A Story with a Moral Concealed on the Premises
  A town built on science and utilitarianism conflicts with a romance between a poet and a scientist. The poet is given drugs and he no longer pursues poetry only science.
• The Invasion of Maryborough (Written in the 20th Century.)
  A future war between England and Russia
• The Great American Telescope
  Advanced telescope sees a technofuturistic civilisation on Mars
• A Man Who Grew Young Again
  Blood transfusions to save a man from a gunshot cause him to become 30 years younger and no one believes him
• Marvellous Melbourne Twenty Years Hence (a story from 1909)
  Includes a plague in 1899, Geelong becoming the capital of Victoria a fire and lots of ideas. Short overview with no characters
• The Inner House
  Elixir helped create an eternal college city of immortal physicians and describes those that rejected this and ran way from the Great Discovery
• The Decline and Fall of the Australian Empire. A Chapter of Future History.
  China takes over NSW and Victoria
• Looking Backward 2000-1887. The Great Reorganisation Novel.
  One of the most influential Utopias in the world spawning clubs and hundreds of similar and rejectionary stories and fan sequels. Lots of inventions.
• Barbicane and Co., or The Purchase of the Pole
  Buying the North Pole to set up a technofuturistic society.
• An Advance Sheet
  Discussion of parallel worlds and one person has glimpsed one giving details of his encounter with the alternate future
• A Mechanical Minister
  A church minister that is cranked from the back overcranked then goes crazy. Satire similar to the mechanical salesman. Mentions New York.
• A Socialist Dilemma. Being a Fragmentary Chapter from the Future.
  Utopia reply from Australia to Bellamy showing ingratitude as people always want more. Inventions included a machine that can stretch or shrink everyone's height so that everyone is equal. Satirical.
• The New Utopia
  A reply to Bellamy's Utopic story. Satirical meta textual extremes of equality with everyone dying the hair black.
• A Man from Mars
  A god-like man has crashed in a coffin-like metal pod during a tropical storm and the narrator rescues him. But he is bored by everyone's focus on relationships and kills himself. Short story.
• Neuroomia: A New Continent
  Utopia at the South Pole and also refers to their contact with Mars life.
• A Dash to the Pole
  Advanced airship (based on 1852 Hydrogen balloon airship by Henri Giffard) goes to the North Pole and crashes. Considering no company had begun building successful airships until 1897 this is science fiction with science described and an adventure around the device.
• The Year of Miracle. A Tale of the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred
  A doctor finds a cure to the plague then launches the plague on London to sell his cure. It gets out of control and all of England is affected with many dying. Ends with a bright new future with a lot less people!
• Chess A Fool's Mate
  An inventor creates an automated chess set discussing the shortcut in mathematics and predicted moves he took. Interesting that it is similar to a decision made by a chess software engine maker in 2020 called alpha-beta pruning a node-decrease technique developed in the 1950s. This story is next to chess challenges in the newspaper.
• The Woes of Mr Wobbley Comedian; Or, The Dangers of Modern Science
  An invention that etherialises a person that can only be seen by his brother and Mr Wobbley. Amusing scenes of Wobbley dealing with the ghost of Penthrip and police accusing him of murdering the man until he suddenly returns from etheralisation at the end.
• Feminter or the Aurora Land of the South
  Adventurers meet a group of women from an advanced civilization and are taken into the bowels of the Earth. Similar to Verne’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. 21 chapters.
• The Aerial Wedding An Australian Romance
  Includes details of the structure of the 4-seat aeroplane invention complete with foldable balloon and flapping wings. A humorous story written around the idea that the father wanted his daughter to wed someone high.
• The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes
  Davidson's eyes are damaged in an electrical flash resituating their vision 8000 yards away. His body is in his house but his vision is on a beach with penguins. The story is mostly about his experience with a brief possible explanation at the end after he recovers that space has been folded over like folding a piece of paper - interesting that this is now the common example used for wormholes
• Australia's Peril: A Tale of how NSW might fair during a great war
  Purposive future war suggesting ways for Australia to defend itself. Australia loses to the Germans but England defeats the combined might of Europe. 30 chapters. However, written by a journalist working for the military. Hmm.
• The Antarcticans
  Future inventions and a character wanting to get the power of the lost civilisation (Different to A. J. Boyd's Antarcticans.)
• A North Pole Romance
  In the 28th century a triple x-ray long-distance telescope enables a woman to see through the Earth from England to Boston and see her cheating lover with another woman.
• A New Eden
  Published as a book in 1896. Set in 2096 a future utopia in Australia yet the world is a dystopia and no one ever lands until this story and then two are executed as a result.
• Yackandandah in the Year 2000 A. D.
  This is a long-winded dialogue much like Australia Advanced with much description that fills the pages with nothing. Still it’s SF to a degree. Yackandandah is a tiny town in northeast Victoria. Could be interesting to check if the things predicted in 1898 came true in 2000.
• A Very Modern Elopement
  Discusses electric and gas cars and the invention of a car that has both (hybrid car) (Porsche created the first hybrid in 1901)
• Through the Vanished South Pole
  Gravity reversers airships and monsters 32 chapters. Paratext describes him as a Sydney gentleman patents indicate he stayed in Paddington for awhile.
• The Final War. A Story of the Great Betrayal
  The electric rifle actually a laser gun as the scientific explanation points to that was used succesfully in a future war.
• An American Emperor
  A rich entrepreneur decides to become king of France to win his hearts desire and among other things creates a business that will revitalise the Sahara restoring it to the water-abundant fertile land it used to be. While science light the narrative features an alternate reality of an American leading France and the invention of a plan to fill the Sahara sands with water.
• The Fall of Albany
  Japan and France declare war invade Albany. Australia fights back. The enemies try Freemantle but are defeated by electric ships that can travel at 30 knots. Not something electric ships could do until 2021
• The Gold Magnet
  A man finds his wife’s hair's static is attracted to gold uses a lock of it to detect large deposits of gold. Not much science besides the mention of static electricity so more fantasy. But it could be argued it is.
• When the Sleeper Awakes
  A man falls asleep in the 19th century and awakes years later to learn about the dramatic changes in the world but also to fight in an 'aeropile' and die in another invasion of London. A dystopian ending to a future war story.
• A Fin-de-Siecle Invention
  Inventor creates a device that reads the criminal's mind for any crimes and displays the result on a meter.
• According to Plato
  Inventions but limited bearing on the story's electricity theme. Further close reading is needing.
• The World's Last Wonder
  Australia's First Space Opera. The inventor takes his friend and others on a journey to Mars in competition with someone who had stole his patent for his space car. The antagonist's car is called The Annexator and their plan is to claim Mars for themselves, and have even kidnapped the girlfriend of one of the passengers on the protagonist's ship. A tense nailbiting situation mid story as both ships link up and attempt exchanging documents in a vacuum, even though neither car had been designed with an air lock. Landing on Mars, the protagonists meet two intelligent species and detail the attempts to communicate. Unfortunately, the antagonists' prior landing had eventually caused the inhabitants to realise humanity is dangerous and force the protagonists off planet and determine Earth is now under quarantine. This summary does not do the huge amount of science and inventions in this story justice. A critical scholarly digital edition is available for download.
• The Siege of Sydney. The War of Tomorrow.
  Predicts Japan invasion with fighting in Hornsby junction with guns and cannons. Story ends with the communication cable being reconnected to Australia, and everyone finding out that the rest of the world had been at war, too.
• The Invisible Man
  While discussing rational physical principles of optics and plausibility of changing matter to not be reflective or refractive a scientist finds a way to make most of his body invisible although an unexplained ethereal energy is used to complete the process on his cat and then himself.
• The Terrible Submarine
  Advanced submarine encounters a replica from stolen plans and it's a fight to the death
• The World-Masters
  Inventor blackmails world controling all electric current. Creates a death ray (like a laser) that turns people to skeletons on contact.
• The Stolen Phoenix
  Inventor creates an advanced submarine called The Phoenix which is then 'stolen' from him in a scam. He creates another called The Dolphin.
• Stella Figelius: A Tale of Three Destinies
  Inventor talks about contacting the stars and creating an aeroplane
• The Little Florist
  A florist creates a complex central heating system for his orchard saving his crop and offers to help the woman next door with her field as the coldest night in years rolls in to destroy crops in the area. To start a romance the only way an inventor knows!
• Hullenholme's Death Trap
  Engineer creates submarine to kill the man who took the one he loved. The man escapes the submarine. Short psychological thriller with descriptions of how a submarine works.
• The Coloured Conquest
  Set in June 1913 and printed from the book released in 1904. The last free Caucasian is suggested of his Japanese friend to write of his experiences of the last few years when all non-Causians joined together to enslave every White person. Slavery, Eugenics, and conditioning. A dystopian world, although the narrator writes from mostly understanding point of view that Caucasians brought it on themselves.
• The Three Bushmen; or Australians in the Far East. A Thrilling Story of the Russo-Japanese War.
  Japan Russian War adventure with one character having a small invented submarine in a part of the story. Considering the war only started in February, this counts as future war fiction.
• Dr Silex / The Princess Thora
  Lost civilization of the Asturnians 5000 square miles country of Asturnia. Advanced tech. Pillars of light. Artificial daylight. 5 chapters to get the North Pole adventure started and they arrive around XV. Also describes a nearby island with a dwarf-like race. Strange and Powerful weapons and no risk or subjection to an alien fate. Returning a princess to her country kept warm by a nearby volano. Story ends up in sword fights and a castle so not much in advanced tech for most of it. Detailed description in Bleiler’s book.
• The Stolen Submarine
  An advanced submarine battleship with large rooms (including a saloon) and a strong 'ray' light is used in war exercises
• On Satan's Mount
  Looks socialist domestic political. No set future year but seems like at least 50 years. Auto-cars. Aerophone. Mammoth Liner. Electrothermic power has replaced coal. A new electric rifle accidentally erases the president and his contingent but starts with a horse race congress elections and socialism discussions and features typewriters in a newsagency. Still typewriters didn't disappear until the 1980s so pretty good!
• The Pillar of Light
  Inventor creates the 'marine auriscope' and tests it on three boats. Like sonar but looking like a compass it can detect ships far away. Review and synopsis at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14625722
• The Isle of Submarines A South Sea Terror
  An advanced electric submarine covered in different alloy scales described as being able to travel at greater than 60 mph (subs at the time had atop speed of around 14mph on the surface and 7mph below), and has continuous breathable air due to breaking water into hydrogen and oxygen, then liquifying them, and using the hydrogen for explosives.
• The Professor's Experiment
  A professor has retrieved the body of a recently deceased street dweller and, with the help of his concerned medical friend, carefully place wires attached to batteries around the heart of the unfortunate, describing the exact placement to correctly stimulate the heart in the hope of restarting it. Just as the man begins to recover, and success looked likely, the laboratory is blown up by a freak lightning strike, destroying all occupants and evidence.
• The Invasion of Australia. A Forecast.
  World War in 1914. Quite detailed. Australian Politics. Massive new German Battleship. Electric launches. Massive fleet invades a defenceless Australia.
• The World Peril of 1910
  A complex hybrid airship and submarine is offered to the Kaiser potentially altering political power around the world.
• The Invasion of 1910
  Bleiler says highly researched two writers. Complex and detailed German invasion of England. Future War with only slightly advanced weapons.
• The Esramians
  Newspaper printed excerpts from a novel - not complete. Martians following a Christian style philosophy visit Earth to impart their wisdom.
• Doom of Our Planet
  A scientist creates an 'antigelesis' weapon that creates earthquakes and destroys mountains. Over 50 chapters of discussion and chasing someone who stole the manuscript trying to prevent more deaths.
• A Modern Atlantis
  Set in an equality driven egalitarian society, explaining the social and work structure of all the a happy people in Atlantis. Advanced Culture. Electric Trams etc.
• The Blood of the Ghettos and the Red Trail of the Brigands: A Concise History of the Year 1957.
  Italians versus Jewish Russians in North Australia in 1957. Bored telephone operators, personal flying vehicles, and a civil war. Eventually they lose, and the Jewish Russians are deported to Palestine to set up New Jerusalem and the Italians are deported to savage islands. Predictions abound.
• Mantrap Manor
  Revenge is taken on a protagonist using electricity as a barrier and traps
• A Trip to the Moon
  The narrator doesn't go into detail about how he finds himself on the far side of the moon but discovers a city of tall beings, befriends a family, and is taken on trips including mountain climbing, skating and other unlikely adventures. While this could easily have been dismissed as children's fantasy, while the writer doesn't go into too much detail about the science, it is written rationally (no magic) and includes comparison to Earth society at the time which makes it compelling reading. Narrative changes abruptly in the final chapter where the narrator wakes up beside his wife (someone who is not mentioned at all in the entire story) and finds it is all a dream. However, the newspaper closed shortly after so this might have been the act of a caring publisher before the end.
• The Silver Ball
  An invading fleet of gunboats await payment near Melbourne and a scientist scares them away with a device that separates the water around the ships into its 'chemical constituents'.
• The Blue Bolt
  A sequel to The Silver Ball (1908) similar in style. Professor uses electricity to erase invaders.
• Mr. Austin's Airships and Professor Paff's Paralyser
  Sequel to The Silver Ball and The Blue Bolt. Similar in style. The professor creates another invention to fight off invaders.
• When the Southern Cross Shines Red
  Future War attack on Fremantle Western Australia by the Japanese. Both navies with advanced vessels yet the ship The Forth causes damage to the Japanese fleet by lighting its oil reserves and exploding into the air and crashing into the fleet. A second episode appeared a month later regarding the attack of the Japanese on Sydney. Looking at other stories by Patrick Vaux it seems he made a career of this as there are other short stories in a similar vein. Due to time constraints I have not yet had a chance to closely read more of his stories to see if there are any strong SF modes in use. Interesting that in 1917 Vaux published a book about gadgets featuring details of the latest technology and inventions at the time.
• The Inoculation of Ideas. Prof. Paff's First Peace Experiment
  Paff is accumulating the electric energy of positive human behaviour at musical and other events in specially made batteries. Paff tests this on the population to great success promising to release the electric energy of enthusiasm as the Prime Minister tours the country to sell his great scheme of country-wide irrigation.
• The Message
  Novel came first. Dystopia to Utopia. Germany invades Britain and is overthrown. Long and ponderous and realist.
• The Diamond Lens
  Reprinted from 1858. "The Ten Greatest Tales of Awe and Mystery Ever Written No. 7. A scientist working in his laboratory chances upon a microscopic humanoid and falls in love with her staring through the microscope for hours but is devastated when the droplet of water dries up and she shrivels and dies. The male gaze is strong with this one. Originally published in the Atlantic Monthly.
• The Secret of Castle Storm
  Scientist keeps his deceased wife in suspended animation in a crystal freezer and works in a laboratory searching for the elixir of life. While there is not much science it is interesting in that this story seems almost identical to the story of Dr Freeze in the movie Batman and Robin which is based on an old comic book from 1959. Also as the scientist and his frozen wife are destroyed by a great storm and the ending is that only through God will we receive eternal life this story reflects Adelaide Primrose's ending in The Professor's Experiment in 1906.
• The Man Who Stopped a War. A Tale of an Australian War Correspondent.
  A skirmish between British and Japanese naval forces in the Pacific with a pressman describing the vast battlefleets mines and reciprocal attacks. Future War fiction but a strange one in that it isn't fully explained how the Australian stopped the war. The British and the Japanese were allies between 1902 and 1923 so why a future war story? Evidence suggests it was published in the Pall Mall Magazine in 1901 due to a report in the Tasmanian news that they had received a copy of the magazine (19/07/1901) which featured a Naval Duel of the Future by Patrick Vaux. As the British navy fought the Japanese navy in 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea this is also a predictive story. Mention of a marconigram which also suggests it was written before telegram had become common or perhaps Vaux wished to point to an alternate future.
• The Man Who Ended War
  Features a disintegration ray and minor science descriptions in Chapter xx.
• The Vibration Disintegrator
  Inventor demonstrates a device that cancels sound waves by disintegrating them predicting sound cancellation technology by 20 years.
• The Jewel-Maker
  Inventor converts diamond dust into various jewels. Complex description of the device and process in X but mainly a romance and crime story.
• An Aerial Adventure, or The Secret of a Scientist
  The story features an abduction into a new spaceship invention that will travel to a newly discovered planet. During the 5 year journey mature themes are discussed before they land on an alien planet with extraterrestrials. Biology and economy are discussed in detail yet it soon descends into a simple fight against the kingdom albeit with science-based weapons. Eventually losing one of their crew, the crazed inventor destroys the city in revenge and escapes with the narrator and others.
• Love, and the Aeroplane. A Tale of Tomorrow.
  A town gets various new inventions using gyroscopes. Gyroscope car, gyroscope monorail but all inventions, apart from the aeroplane being used regularly, are a backdrop to the romance. Jump to the future where married couple's son is grown up driving an 'old car' and is recommended to get one of those new electric cars.
• The Wickham Aeroplane
  An earlier more advanced design for the aeroplane was first demonstrated by Wickham however it was stolen by a Russian spy with him in it with the plan to land it on a steam boat built with a landing pad. Wickham was able to smash the aeroplane into the ocean so that it did not fall into the wrong hands. Predicting aircraft carriers by 8 years.
• An Aeroplane Adventure
  An aeroplane stops for repairs. The motor uses a type of cordite and other parts to operate faster - though the story suggests the aeroplane itself is the invention. Story is mainly about saving the King.
• The Strange Adventures of Bailey Catford. Scientist and Inventor.
  Catford is accused of a crime he didn't commit so escapes uses his huge submarine with working underwater exit door having solved pressure and air problems captures the real murderer and gets him to confess in his patented 'air tight entrance'. Reprinted several times including in 1931 as The Man with the Submarine.
• Nilda. A Tale of the German Invasion of 1912
  1914 war predicted in 1912. Some inventions. 28 chapters that abruptly end
• The Bridge. A Mystery of War
  An invention that destroys bridges and prevents new ones. Original published in the Chambers Journal in 1909-1910 pages 451-455 remote control torpedo that can be directed using a map covered in wires. Published in London.
• The Dawn of All
  Catholics get an advanced airship to spread the Word
• In the Hour of Defeat
  Holland and Russia declare war on England. Alternate reality near future with huge groups of fighting ships.
• The Greed of Conquest
  Development of a raygun by a scientist with the invention used by others
• Dr Delmores Secret
  A doctor is given the elixir of life and describes the person who gave it to him and his increasingly youthful appearance.
• The Meteoric Benson A Romance of Actuality
  First fiction helicopter developed by Benson. Plans stolen and rival copy built. Various skermishes then an agreement to end all war.
• The Dark Planet
  The narrator finds an otherworldly orb. He climbs aboard and is suddenly taken to another planet where he begins to educate the medieval feathered men on science, falls in love, but has to escape in one of the craft back to Earth (and tell his story) Roughly! Summary to be updated when all sections can be read.
• The Half God
  Scientists develop super-radium capable of curing all ills, but the gram is stolen. Crime, murder, court case. Also, radium was already in use as a cancer cures so this is only a slight advance.
• The Hertzian Voice. A Story of Strange Adventure and Romance of Wireless Telegraphy (aka Phantom Wires)
  Environment of inventions. Inventor creates a camera that can transmit pictures wirelessly but can't get funding. Ends up dealing with broken wires on a ship and discussing wire-less communication. More of a spy drama surrounded by inventions but the epilogue has him working on simplifying his selenium cell so that portable picture transmission cameras can be built. (Selenium solar batteries were first built in 1883.)
• Night Wings
  This is the age of the aeronauts. Advanced hydrogen balloon airship for two with electric controls yet away from that are horses old equipment telegrams and communication by light flashes emphasizing the advancement of the balloon. Mostly a war story with the balloon not the centre of attention. An alien (foreign) torpedo shaped biplane visits a British beach communicating with a spy. After shooting it down Great Britain invents smaller balloon ships to fight them. Like in modern science fiction the airships are described with maritime vocabulary.
• The Unknown Terror
  Japanese scientist suspected of creating a chemical bomb and blowing people up as an experimentalist, with a plan to help Nippon take over the world.
• The Kaisers Secret
  Germans invent battery containing wireless operated poison loaded plane to attack the UK but are thwarted by a British seaplane. A long drawn out war saga with a few inventions described but not in great detail.
• The Doom of the Zeppelin
  Advanced Zeppelins Attack London. Short story.
• The Rocket: A Forecast
  British Civil War approximately 10 years after 1915 with workers revolting against the royalists. Not quite French revolution but definitely alternate future. Slow ponderous lots of description barely anything happening so many chapters!
• The Clutching Hand. Scientific Detective Tales.
  Terribly written melodramatic spy drama made up of 7 stories (and made into a movie) full of inventions and a hero repeatedly rescuing a damsel from villains with no real reason for their continued attacks besides that they're evil. They even have a death ray which the inventor hero is able to resist.
• The Eagle of Peace. A Tale of Love, Invention, and War.
  Advanced airship invention travels across the world fighting Germans. Basic story with only the airship being the science fiction part. More spyfi than scifi.
• The Red Kite
  Experimental giant airship aeroplane for four traveling from England to Germany during the war. Can fly all night at 150m/h go into the stratosphere and stay motionless while it dropped bombs. (Fastest plane at the time was 135m/h) Also features almost silent machine guns. Story is mainly a war romance. The interesting thing about this story is that as it hasn’t been long since aeroplanes were invented. This story predicts the naming of parts of them by using ‘prow’ for the front of the airplane taking that from boats. This might be a precursor to later space opera stories where space ships are using boat terminology rather than plane terminology.
• The Day! Or the Passing of the Throne (aka just 'The Passing of the Throne')
  Advanced zeppelins attacking London.
• The Terror by Night
  Village attacked by strange creatures and police kill them. Advisor to the detective reads dead scientist's notes at the end. Scientist worked on evolving a pig then a mad human but both experiments reverted from higher intelligence back to pre evolved forms. Scientist is killed. Possibly influenced by H. G. Well's Island of Dr. Moreau.
• The Black Box / The Pocket Wireless / The Tenement House Mystery
  Based on the silent movie. A crime story involving a professor and his pocket wireless which can communicate by text with others who have it. A character keeps being given a black box with riddles clues and advice in the investigation of a murder robbery.
• The Drum Beat. A Story of the German Menace in Australia.
  Set in 1918, initially a love story, and a little spyfi with the Germans living in the town, introducing the main science fiction invention, an aeroplane that is silent and can rise to quite a height without the occupants feeling cold-with one of the Germans very interested in it. The story is quite slow and ponderous with many repeated situations and diversions before Germans launch their attacks on Sydney in August 1918 (after over twenty chapters of character development and aeroplane adventures). One of the highlights is that Gillian is a female pilot and fights against the Germans with her aeroplane. Eventually the Australians win against the Germans but at a high cost, with many an important character dead.
• The Parrot-Faced Man
  Brain in a jar that is still conscious and speaking.
• The Raid. A Story of the Last Phase of the Great War.
  (Not to be confused with Captain H. G. Mackenzie) Attacks on Sydney and Melbourne!!! Started serialising before the war ended. Detailed plane / airship fights over Sydney. Over 26 chapters somewhere. This is not by 'Captain' H. G. Mackenzie who had died several years previously. Extensive searches of various databases around the world have not found this particular H. G. Mackenzie. As the story has reference to work in a newspaper office it is possibly written by a journalist under a pseudonym. Stylometric analysis might help, however the descriptions of the fight and the discussions between characters seem to be different styles of writing, and may be a collaborative effort.
• The Automatic Pen. Guaranteed to Spell Correctly.
  A university student gives her physics and mathematics professor her science project, a pen that will write the right words as he writes, as he had trouble with spelling. This leads to a romance and marriage. A short story with more of a linguistic rather than science focus. A light, humorous story.
• The Inventions of Mr Potty I. The Automatic Preacher.
  A satirical story told at Flannigan's pub about the genius inventor's failure of his mechanical minister which preached a sermon from its internal phonograph before its mechanics failed, causing it to leap into the congregation.
• The Inventions of Mr Potty II. The Mechanical Rooster.
  A satirical story about a genius inventor's wooden and springs mechanical rooster that wins a cock fight. A distant sequel to "The Automatic Preacher."
• Out of the Silence
  Failed past utopian technosociety wants to rule again. Invention of a ray that only kills people with pigmented skin.
• The U-Boat Chaser
  Mainly a war story but with hydrophones and advanced searchlights and a superfast submarine. Need more chapters to confirm extent of science fiction tropes.
• The Great Mendax Transmitter
  Mendax goes into his transmitter just as his dog breaks in. Hilarity ensues. Likely this is the first Mendax short story.
• The Invisibility of Mendax
  Mendax is painted with a chemical that causes him to become mostly invisible leaving a beard and skeleton. The hot water and reagent to remove it turns him Prussian blue. Similar setup to the Disney movie The Invisible Kid (1988) where the chemical can be washed off with water though the pain is different.
• The Mendax Gold Saver
  Mendax creates a portable device that quickly extracts gold from sea-water. This is probably inspired by the Argyle 1905-1906 gold-from-seawater plant at Broken Head considering the story is set in the past. However as the the Argyle plant closed and no company has come up with a more efficient method Mendaxs invention is still science fiction.
• More Enduring than Bronze
  Inventor creates a new explosive powder that can destroy Melbourne. Tested on a hill with a great description of how it exploded and a later description of how the force of the explosion wrenched the air around it. Sells to the army. While predominantly a contemporary romance and sensation story science is mentioned with reverence throughout and the story ends with a speech about how science will help families and the future.
• When the World Reeled
  World domination story but mainly a romance with electricity
• The Antarcticans. Being the Further and Still More Surprising Adventures of Captain Bjornvik in the Regions Around the South Pole.
  Bjornvik and crew are getting ready for another trip when their ship is suddenly captured by a mysterious electric force akin to the kind of electricity described by Nikolai Tesla. Bjornvik eventually meets his captor, a scientist who has created a vast advanced city with 3.5 million inhabitants. Soon Bjornvik warms to the king and the king takes him and his friends across the vast civilisation beyond the ice where, along with extensive explanations of scientific principles, we get to encounter a wide variety of futuristic inventions, some of which don't appear in our reality until 100 years later. Trigger warning: The punishment inventions for criminals are quite gruesome.
• The World in Peril: A Tale of the Air and the Sea
  Advanced air and sea tech. Protagonists travel the world and have adventures. Editorials: Remarkable production. Invented a craft which is at once a submarine or a flying ship. Sensational events.
• The Moonman
  Young boy Sonnie is awoken by a little green moonman on the edge of his bed who, with his friends, takes Sonnie up on a moon beam for an adventure. Sonnie soon finds that moonbeams are like trains and the southern cross is the station, and he can't visit Earth's moon just yet but he's welcome to visit the mechanical occupants of one of Mars' moons. Many of the characters are surprised whenever a female appears, and when Sonnie is offered a trip to one of Mars' moons by a beautiful moonmaiden he doesn't hesitate, leaving all the moonmen behind. A satirical story with a dig at Australian academic culture as a subtext.
• The Shades of Jupiter
  More of a crime story. Poorly written science fantasy with the influence of Gods and a maniacal scientist filling the protagonist with electricity with no explanations of how he might have moved with a field of electricity to his bed without setting fire to everything including himself. Various inventions peppered throughout the story with no reason besides they look good there.
• The Rejuvenation of Slogger Binns
  Mendax buys the father of his housekeeper from her for 50 pounds and experiments on him with the plan to rejuvenate him. Unfortunately the man goes crazy and tries to kill Mendax.
• Alarm
  From The Herald: Through the story runs a tangled skein of romance. The dramatic seizure of the north, air raids of Melbourne and Sydney. Invasion of Queensland, siege of Brisbane-these are dramatic incidents, graphically described, by which the writer points the moral of his visionary story. The forward to this rousing yarn has been written by Mr W. M. Hughes, former Prime Minister, who appreciates the motive of the writer - the awakening of Australia to the need for adequate defence. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/243622670
• The Man They Couldn't Arrest
  Inventor creates machine that can listen to almost any conversation on a telephone. Is attacked and defends with electricity shocking the criminal temporarily blind. The criminal dies trying to escape and the inventor plays a film of what happens on a wall to a detective proving his innocence.
• Ruled by Radio or The Man Who Stole the Ether
  Attempt to locate the Z-Ray. Set in future 1930. Some science. Some mentions of current tech. Murders of people who want the Z-Ray. quote: beastly scientific gadgets. Story focuses on a scientist and his secret and how society wants to wrest something like that from him and his constant fight to keep it. Aeroplanes fitted with it have force fields quote set the electric current to magentise the outer zone The Ray of Death. The Ray machine. Creates an electrical zone and shoots death rays. The silent projected beam is turned by the scientist on himself and he is fried at the end. Published in 1925 as a novel.
• The Muted Quest
  quote The plans of the engine while revolutionary are worthless without the formulae of the metal used in construction. Japanese try to move their stolen engine while others have committed to other plans. SF spy story.
• The Star Germs
  An experimenter collects what he feels may be germs from the stars from the top of mountains and studies them in his laboratory. He attempts to cultivate them in six different test tubes. However, the first four tubes explode and the geometric creatures from a lower dimension begin attacking the members of the household. One rapidly develops into a Satyr creature that the scientist feels is the result of the shapes tapping into common thought forms. The fifth tube explodes with a stronger creature before the final sixth tube explodes exposing a bright creature that the others fear. The scientists proposes that the Satyr is evil from Saturn and the glowing creature must be from Venus. An engaging story replete with scientific explanations about biology, how cells work, concepts of different dimensions of existence, and more.
• The Green Flame
  Placeholder. Detailed description coming soon.
• The Devolution of Man
  A satirical review of the Fortieth Century Review book written by Dr. Janet Fowler based on the recovered manuscripts from ancient Melbourne describing the male rebellion in 2350 and the liberal thinking in the treatment of men with it now being voluntary to have a male child whether men should be admitted to university and whether grown men should be allowed to be walking about the streets unescorted. Being a review of the 40th century (3900s) the book is probably copyright 4001.
• Skirmish Posts of Earth
  A group of explorers plan to learn more about a mysterious tribe in the heart of Papua New Guinea and take their boat up the river to find them. They discover a statue made of a material currently unknown which activates, detects their party of 25 and sends a 'carrier wave' to the tribe, before encountering one-foot-tall natives carrying 'light' spears that give electric shocks and can shoot birds from trees. They're captured, taken to a city inside a crater, their revolvers are locked by some electromagnetic force, and they're trapped in a hut with a door of energy that flickers and sparks, and reflects any force given to it. Though it decends into an altar sacrifice of natives using gas bulb lights and vaporisation, an explosion destroying the natives energy, and the escape of the whites.
• The Luminous Ray
  Placeholder. Details coming soon.
• Bunkentwaddle's Odicaster
  Inventor converts smells to electrical signals and back again but flower perfume becomes a putrid stench as the receiver is not as good as the transmitter.
• The Ether King. A Story of Mystery and Adventure.
  A futuristic airship by an inventor scientist. A location programmed death ray that can destroy any part of the world in seconds. An arch nemesis, a damsel in distress, and so many wireless inventions, make this the pulpiest entry into the Australian vintage science fiction stories from newspapers.
• Breed of the ANZACS
  Invasion of the Karnos from Asia. Australian military scramble to fight battleships, planes and hundreds of troops. First mention of the White Australia Policy in vintage science fiction so far.
• The Phantom Enemy
  Simple 5 chapter narration of a burgler who worked with an inventor to be invisible. Not the same as Morris J Steeles.
• Eagles of Queensland
  The Bulyon brothers are Australian inventors serving in the British navy. The older brother develops an advanced airship able to destroy German airships discovered approaching British territory. The younger brother develops a wireless energy case that sits in a boat and is able to send out a powerful wave that disables the electronics in german airplane engines. [This could be interpreted as a machine that can generate an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)]
• The Whispering Death
  Inventor uses a gravity box to create planes without sound or engines or propellers – Third story in the Dr. Night trilogy
• South (not completed)
  Inventor builds a 600 feet long advanced submarine-airship with beam ice cutters and attempts to reach the south pole. Written by a child awarded a certificate and paragraphs of chapters split over several weeks but no further instalments in childrens pages after September that are available on Trove.
• A Visit to the Moon
  Several people visit temples and other places on the moon along with the aliens that live there. Need earlier chapters.
• The Red Life. An Australian Story of Ambition, Invention and Romance
  Food out of the air. Atmosoup. The elixir of life. Reprinted as The Death Doctor in various mastheads in 1932. Invention creating a life saving soup but others think he is trying to fix his problem of being literally poison which seeps out of his skin. Some scientific explanations.
• Into Space
  Inventor builds a rocket that takes him into space but dies there.
• The Robot Age of the Future: A Glimpse of Hobart in 3,000 A. D.
  3000 A.D. A man from 1932 is resurrected and learns about the future through one of his physicians, finding out how science and invention has made the world a better place, until a bad actor takes control of the science and destroys everything.
• Man's Mortality. The Great Novel
  Politics. War on China and Italy. Set in 1987. Futuristic airships corporation with I.A. planes able to travel at 500 miles an hour. A detailed extrapolation of the future filled with inventions from a capitalist perspective.
• The Return from Mars
  After crashing on Mars and staying for 6 years, a scientist, a meteorologist have finished repairing their ship and say goodbye to the Martians they'd enjoyed their time with. On board, discussions of gravitation and magnetic fields, before approaching Earth. When they get there they find all of humanity has been wiped out. A war in 1940 had seen the development of a deadly gas that had killed all of humanity. They return to Mars.
• Venus Calling
  Alvin Lister invents a spaceship called "The Venus" which uses his discovery of repelling gravity to push the ship into space. He takes on all his builders, mechanics and engineers, two female friends, one of them the investor, and a worldly adventurous friend called Ulysses, for a test run. On the trial run, four criminals stowaway on board and take over the ship, but Lister's security guard had also made it aboard at the last minute and, in the fighting, the controls are damaged and the trial run becomes the journey to Venus. Over the ensuring weeks the criminals are given limited freedom. The complement of 17 eventually make it to Venus, navigate the thick atmosphere and land on a mountain side, immediately believing that it is a dead world. While the rest explored, three of the antagonists take the opportunity to steal the ship with the intention of going back to Earth but Lister had expected that to happen so had locked all the exit cells (airlocks) open, so they could never leave Venus. The fourth antagonist had already shifted to their side and was helping the crew, earning respect from everyone. The crew then need to find food and shelter and soon find a hidden area where a venus-cavewoman riding a four-winged pteradactyl-like creature invites them for lunch. It turns out that her ulterior motive was to claim Ulysses as her husband-slave and an amusing scene ensures as Ulysses can't comprehend that her offer to give him a flight on the Plodja would end with him being taken to a village of women and beaten and dragged across the ground to a hut where he is trapped with his kidnapper who quickly disrobes. Various adventures ensue as Lister keeps the team together, Ulysses travels Venus, works out the system of the world and quickly breaks it by punching the queen in the face, who laughs and finally treats him as equal; and Ingerfeldt, the leading villain, attempts to kidnap Lister to get him to unlock the exits, even eventually capturing Ulysses and stringing him up for hanging if Lister didn't comply. Eventually, with the antagonists having given away much of the supplies to bribe the inhabitants to help capture Lister, when the protoganists finally win, not all of them can return to Earth.
• The Cruise of the Golden Caterpillar
  A large long segmented train like bus created by a renowned professor starts a 3 month exploration of the Australian outback. Complete with everything you need for a long journey. Criminals try to steal the plans for the engine.
• The Automatic Killers
  Trigger warning. Some graphic body dismembering near the start. An evil half Chinese half Japanese genius has controlled the dead using 'Radcliffe' a liquid form of electricity and 10 times more powerful able to increase the strength and resistance of anything living or dead. He also has a giant rat!
• The Missing Dimension
  Scientist removes a dimension and can walk through the world with the appearance of being two dimensional while still existing as a whole.
• The Air Devil
  A near future rivalry between two advanced airplane companies. While planes travelled at the normal speed for the 1930s (150mph) they are bigger able to take 40 passengers rather than the usual 21-32. Planes exploding every few chapters while preparations to launch a new advanced plane the X4 continues.
• Maureen's Mating
  Two women discuss their adventures with the conversation peppered with multiple instances of the casual use of futuristic inventions and expression of different social norms which leads to Maureen explaining that her intended husband is found to have breached private flight laws by driving under the influence of pills, over the flight speed limit, and failing to activate the infra-red alert system. He is to be tried on live broadcast and they tune in to watch on the television cabinet which doubles as a video phone.
• The Dream Machine
  Late Professors invention discovered. Record plays the sound of his experiment on a vagrant to delve into the subconscious eliciting the story of how man first came to Earth.
• Silence
  Scientist creates a device that causes silence for miles then attempts to use it along with a crime syndicate to rob all the banks in the world from Vesuvius. Vesuvius erupts.
• Space
  Children attempt to escape in their spaceship from a death ray fired from Mars.
• The Steel Dutchman
  Basic adventure but with a boat that is incredibly fast runs on transmitted crystalline energy and can fire torpedoes. Science of tiny wavelengths. Missing lots of chapters. Other chapters on Trove suggests its a fast boat against another fast boat and a strong dutchman is the enemy. It gets more SF near the end with pulling about the power transmission system. Fliegende Schaum Bainbridge Thermionic Controlling Systems remote control motors crystal driven power transmission across space. A similar science fiction engine was used in Doctor Who Terror of the Zygons in 1975.
• The Red Terror [Prequel to The Space Raiders]
  A prequel story to the Space Raiders featuring a red light from space that captures people and a 4 propeller helicopter with torpedoes capable of reaching the stratosphere and destroying the creatures from another world.
• The Space Raiders
  Airships are destroyed by space ships from another world manned by ape-like creatures who kidnap a scientist inventor. Basic space invasion story with a scientist damsel in distress, a suspicious inventor, and many inventions.
• Boys of 2036
  Boy wakes up in the future on a high speed road and a boy in a personal flying car helps him dodge a fast car being pursued by robot-like henchmen. Soon, Frank is caught up in a fight against a dictator politician who will do anything to obtain power. Thanks to his friend's father who developed a ray to defeat the evil politician, along with the help of a blind secret agent, Frank survives and is able to return to his own time.
• Mystery at Maralinga
  Boys break into what they think is an empty house but find it full of inventions based on the infra-red ray. They are captured by their enemy who plans to cremate them with his new invention. Borderline science fiction as the science is not well explained but it features the main inventions of a ray-machine and explosive yellow powder.
• Captain Midnight
  Spy drama with a secret laboratory and a death ray set in Sydney and Tasmania
• The Boy Inventor. The Amazing Adventures of Don Delmont The Boy inventor, and his pal, "Dandy" Stevens.
  Invents a stratosphere plane. A bullet-proof electric aero-car with an oxyacetylene headlight and a gyroscopically controlled car and many other inventions.
• They Found Atlantis
  Escape from the lost city of Atlantis with Atlanteans
• The Great Murchison Mystery
  Dr. Verity's experiments enables telepathic contact with Martians. There is also a death ray.
• The Sapphire Riddle
  A scientist finds a way to reconstitute cheap gems into more expensive gems and sells them
• The Branded Spy
  Spy drama with futuristic submarines facing off between Japanese and Americans and British interceding to prevent a war. Research indicates that submarine I-14 described in the text by the author in 1936 was not built until 1943. Also there is a discussion about the Japanese threat to Pearl Harbour. This aborted future war is more spy story than science fiction like most near contemporary future war stories yet its prescience makes it a worthy addition to the list.
• The Men of Mars
  Inventors build a rocket ship to take them to Mars. Some science. In instalments in the children’s pages up to instalment 26. Some are short so estimate 7000 words.
• Next Port Eldorado
  Barry escapes Count Musa in an amphibious vehicle of his own invention featuring other inventions but more of a spy vs spy story.
• Clarence the Camel
  A mechanical camel helps explorers explore the Outback and swims them across a river away from a crocodile.
• The Quest of the Costa Rica
  Invented airship and submarine. From the pages.Three young Australians in search for a sunken treasure ship aided by the marvellous inventions of a clever scientist who has learnt the secret of how to transmit power by wireless. A mysterious enemy who has also mastered the secret attempts to ruin the expedition with many thrilling consequences. Described as a Thrilling Scientific Adventure.
• Sea Gold. The Romance of a Pirate Submarine
  Book printed in 1936. Advanced submarine is forgotten when the country experiences a coup and the crew travel the world finding a way to fight back. Article stating author is Australian https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205898639
• An Awkward Dilemma (Mendax)
  While no specific science was described Mendax had attempted to clone himself with multiple jars of progressing cell cultures and the housekeeper unknown to him just before he arrived at the laboratory had put her granddaughters baby in the final jar to his immense shock.
• The Right to Love
  Predominantly a romance yet set in a utopian dystopian eugenics-focused country with everything anyone can want excerpt for forced marriages based on beauty and brains.
• Stratosphere Express
  Advanced aeroplane discussions of rockets and meteorites dealing with polar environment and engineering
• The Ghost Counts Ten
  Features a heat ray that melts anything (death ray)
• Fool's Harvest
  Invasion of Australia by the Cambadians
• Secret of the Rays
  Set in 1950 with gyroscope planes that overcome the pull of gravitation and criminals who use a black ray to put everyone asleep testing and getting supplies while finding a protective ray that can prevent this particular cosmic ray. Ends abruptly on a romantic note.
• The Fall of a Dictator
  Inventor for Cyrania working for the Cyranian military is developing a death ray and an electric torpedo.
• A Mover of Mountains
  Inventor creates a machine that can shift sandhills using wind power written third person laconic style.
• The Invisible Ray
  The town thinks the scientist escaped from an asylum and is working on a deathray. Actually he created his own kind of television. A satirical story. Also referenced in Death Rays and the Popular Media 1876-1939 A Study of Directed Energy Weapons in Fact, Fiction and Film By William J. Fanning, Jr. · 2015
• Sky-High Terror
  Mendip II new aeroplane with gravity plates and a particular kind of spirit fuel is repeatedly sabotaged and stolen while a romance takes place and police investigate. Just an advanced invention macguffin. More of a crime story than SF.
• The Social Code
  The story opens with there already being a linked observatory at Mt Kosciuszko and on Mars. The astronomy falls in love with a Martian woman he sees at Mars observatory 10 yet it will always be unrequited. Allegory to relations between Christians and Muslims as a Martian man is angry when the Martian woman takes off her veil to the astronomer and she is later vaporised for her crime.
• Forty Bob, Or -
  Mendax is forced to pay 40 bob for not voting and in revenge invents a device that turns off the entire telephone exchange in Australia. Likely the last Mendax story.
• The Terrible Eye
  Invention of a time window seeing into the past and present. Originally published in The Bayonne Times (New Jersey) in the USA in 1943
• The Man Who Tilted the Earth
  Entire 25000 word story in one issue. Atomic physics fight to prevent the militarisation of explosive Z with the help of scientist Dr. Gloria Surrocks. But Dr Zachavitch has other plans and has created a disintegration ray that breaks atoms into energy the force being millions times greater than any known explosive. He tests it in the arctic and causes sudden mountains tidal waves and a shift of the Earth's axis pushing icebergs to the equator.
• The Year 22 / The Earth Abides / The Last American
  A pestilence returns humanity to the dark ages and after many generations a few try to get humanity back on track again. A novel in three parts.
• The Kid From Mars
  Scientists and doctors investigate a kid who claims to be from Mars then a group of humans visit mars and encounter 7 foot tall Martians. Probably written for children. Originally published in 1948 and Disney now owns the rights.
• The War of the Worlds
  Reprinted from 1897. Martians invade Earth killing with heat rays but fall victim to Earth's bacteria and have to leave.
• The Sky Block
  Weather Wreckers hiding in tunnels. Spy story with an invention that disrupts the weather
• The Hopkins Manuscript (summary by Edgar Holt)
  The narrator's summary describes the meeting of the moon and the Earth ending much of civilisation but with limited scientific fact.