“Through the Force things you will see. The future, the past, old friends long gone.” - Yoda
A brief history of Star Walking Inc.
Star Walking Inc. "The Star Wars Appreciation Society of Australia" was created by Shane Morrissey in June 1987 to replace the highly successful H.A.M.I.L.L.S Star Wars fan club which closed down a month earlier in May 1987. Shane, with assistance from co-founders Michael Wilson and Darren Maxwell, formed Star Walking Inc. to fill the void left by H.A.M.I.L.L.S, though no one could ever have guessed just how much would be achieved in the club's lifetime.
Despite being conceived in June 1987, Star Walking Inc. was not officially launched until October 14, 1988. The decision to run a new Star Wars club at this time was questioned by many as the entire franchise was going through a very quiet period (known as the 'lean times')
both in Australia and the rest of the world.
But the club flourished very quickly and within its first year of operation Star Walking Inc. ran its highly successful The Convention in September 1989. This large, multi-media science fiction event attracted over 300 people and featured Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) making his Australian convention guest of honour debut, and in the process becoming a good friend to Star Walking Inc.
With The Convention completed, Star Walking Inc. went on to organise The Empire Strikes Back 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet held in 1990. This event was a great success and paved the way for many more outstanding banquets and dinner dances to come.
Amongst these were the highly acclaimed Raiders of the Lost Ark 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 1991 which featured live performances of songs from the 1930s and 40s era, and the spectacular Return of the Jedi 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 1993. The Jedi banquet in particular was memorable for two reasons: first it featured a special mock wedding of 'Han and Leia’, and secondly, a congratulatory letter personally hand written by Mark Hamill was read out at the start of the night.
The Return of the Jedi 10th Anniversary banquet was held during Star Walking Inc. - The Second Convention which was another lavish and successful multi-media science fiction convention which included a wonderful public exhibition. The convention featured guests of honour Don Bies, the official Archivist at Skywalker Ranch, making his first Australian visit (and who also became a good friend to Star Walking Inc.), and Lisa Cowan, then staff writer for the US Official Lucasfilm Fan Club.
With the success of these two conventions under its belt, and with the "rebirth" of Star Wars through Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novels, the time was ripe for Star Walking Inc. to create something new and special, its own regular social club meetings.
In February 1994, the newly created Skyforce held its first social club meeting in St Marks Church Hall, Camberwell where around 100 eager Star Wars fans attended. Based on the success of this first club meeting, everyone knew Skyforce would go from strength to strength.
1995 proved to be a massive year for Star Walking Inc. With Skyforce running strong, it was only natural for Star Walking Inc. to create the first of what would become a national Star Wars institution, the Force conventions.
Force I "The First National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia" was the first fan run Star Wars convention to be held in this country - possibly even the world. Force I had Jon Berg (ILM), Nelson Hall (ILM), Steve Sansweet (Lucasfilm Ltd), Hugh Fleming (comic book artist) and Don Bies returning for a second time as guests of honour. The convention, which also featured a special Cantina themed dinner banquet, was a great success with Star Wars fans attending from all over the country.
With Skyforce running successfully for two solid years, the time had come for Star Walking Inc. to spread its wings nationally, so in 1996 Skyforce Sydney was launched making Star Walking Inc. the first science fiction fan club ever to run a social club meeting interstate.
Skyforce Sydney kicked off with over 300 people attending the first meeting which was just phenomenal!
This in turn proved that Skyforce really was: "a new Force rising..."
1997 was the year Star Wars: The Special Edition films were released theatrically and Star Walking Inc. was right there to hold special screenings,
both in Melbourne and Sydney, for all three movies.
Hot on the heels of The Special Edition releases were two of Star Walking Inc.’s biggest projects: Force II "The Second National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia", and the Star Wars 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet which was the largest science fiction fan club banquet held in the country.
Force II was a hugely successful convention which was further enhanced by the presence of the Sydney Skyforce team who brought a large amount of energy to the event. Force II featured Kenny Baker (Artoo Detoo) and Jeremy Bulloch and Steve Sansweet returning back to Australia as guests of honour.
The Star Wars 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet occurred during Force II and was so large it needed to be held in an aircraft hangar. Attendees were ferried by bus to the unknown location from the convention venue so as to keep the banquet venue a secret. Parked at one end of the hangar was a two-thirds scale Millennium Falcon built by Star Walking Inc. member Justin Dix (who eventually became the Artoo Detoo/See Threepio wrangler in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith). The night featured a wonderful song and dance number performed by Kenny Baker which helped make the banquet such a lavish success that it is still spoken about today.
With Skyforce meetings in Melbourne and Sydney being so successful, Star Walking Inc. believed Skyforce could now occur anywhere. As a result plans were put in place to run a Skyforce meeting in Brisbane in 1998. Skyforce Brisbane was a daylong event which was a resounding success, as evidenced by the fact that our meeting had a larger attendance than a locally run Science Fiction convention occurring the same day.
They say "time waits for no one" and Star Walking Inc. knows all about this. With the launch of the Star Wars: The Special Edition films, both in cinemas and at a fantastic video launch outside the Myer department store in Melbourne, the next major event for Star Walking Inc. to focus on was Force III "The Third National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia".
Yet before this convention could occur, Star Walking Inc. had to focus on another new Star Wars film launch.
The Phantom Menace hit the cinemas in May 1999 and Star Walking Inc. was right there holding multiple screenings in multiple states. No sooner had The Phantom Menace been released when Force III kicked off. This was a very popular and enjoyable convention, especially as it featured the world’s First International Star Wars Fan Film Festival, which attracted a lot of local and overseas entries. Force III featured Don Bies once again, along with actor Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka) from The Phantom Menace, as well as Star Wars authors Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole as guests of honour. This convention also featured our special Phantom Menace themed banquet with sets built by Justin Dix.
Both the convention and the banquet saw the emergence of many new fans joining the Star Walking Inc. community who were discovering our wonderful events for the very first time. Yet September 1999 also became a sad time for Star Walking Inc. as the club's director and founder, Shane Morrissey, along with several members of the executive committee - including co-founder Michael Wilson - chose to retire after 11 very successful years with the club.
Shane's departure allowed for new director Chris Brennan, along with a new committee, to fill the organisational roles needed to run the club.
With a fresh new committee on board, the way was paved for Star Walking Inc. to not only run the Raiders of the Lost Ark 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 2001, which saw Anthony Daniels (See Threepio) joining in on the action, but also to launch its first mini-con Force 3.5. This one-day event was held in 2001 and was a great success, so much so that hot on the heels of Force 3.5, was Force 3.75 held a year later in 2002, which also hosted The Second International Star Wars Fan Film Festival.
2002 also saw the release of the new Star Wars film Attack of the Clones, and Star Walking Inc. was right there making
many costume appearances and assisting in promotions.
It was also in 2002 where Star Walking Inc. got to bask in the limelight in a rather new and unique way with the launch of a
feature documentary about the club.
Throughout 1998 and 1999, two filmmakers captured moments of the Star Walking Inc. committee as they prepared for the release of The Phantom Menace along with our own supporting events. Their internationally released DVD, The Phandom Menace, focused much of its energy on the people who made up the 1999 Star Walking Inc. committee, as well the Force III convention, the banquet and the film premiere release of The Phantom Menace itself. To many Star Walking Inc. supporters, this documentary (which is now viewable on YouTube) is considered a wonderful time capsule for how the club looked during this highly productive and exciting period.
Whilst there was a lot of Star Walking Inc. activity occurring in Melbourne during the early 2000s, the Skyforce Sydney team continued to do their part for Star Wars fandom with the launch of their own one-day convention Jedi-Con in 2002. Jedi-Con featured two cast members from Attack of the Clones, Zak Jensen (Kit Fisto) and Mary Oyaya (Luminara Unduli) as guests of honour. This successful event coincided with the Magic of Myth Exhibition which was being held in Sydney at the time.
Meanwhile back in Melbourne, with two great mini-cons under its belt, 2003 saw the new Star Walking Inc. committee take on their greatest challenge,
a banquet to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Return of the Jedi.
The Return of the Jedi 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet (which also incorporated Star Walking Inc.’s 15th anniversary) was a resounding success as it featured numerous song and dance numbers which further cemented Star Walking Inc.’s ability to create spectacular events that never failed to please. It was during this period where Karen McGoldrick took over the role of Director of the club for a period of six months before retiring. After Karen’s departure, Chris Brennan once again took over the Director’s position.
Knowing that Star Walking Inc. still had the magical touch in creating great events, the next logical step was to run another convention to be called Force IV. As a fundraiser for this event, Star Walking Inc. ran another mini-con called The Day of the Sith which was very successful.
With The Day of the Sith completed, all eyes turned towards Force IV which would coincide with the release of the last of the Prequel Trilogy films, Revenge of the Sith in 2005. Once again, Star Walking Inc. was heavily involved in cinema promotions and costume appearances for the film.
Force IV “the Fourth National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia”, was held on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June 2005 and was very successful in raising over $5,000 for the club’s nominated charity. This convention also hosted the Third International Star Wars Fan Film Festival. Force IV had Sandi Finlay (Sly Moore), Matt Sloane (Plo Koon), Sean Williams (author), Nicola Scott (comic book artist) and Justin Dix as guests of honour.
2005 also saw the retirement of Chris Brennan from the position of Club Director for the second time. Chris' departure paved the way for Peter Jordan, a long standing club member, to step into the top job.
With Force IV complete, Star Walking Inc. kept up its visual Star Wars presence by continuing to hold successful Skyforce meetings in both Melbourne and Sydney, with various members making appearances on television game shows, including Family Feud and 1 vs 100. Alongside this, Star Walking Inc. received exclusive licensing rights from Lucasfilm Ltd to create a special Star Wars 30th Anniversary Letterman leather jacket which were only available to Star Walking Inc. members.
October 2007 saw the running of the highly successful Jedi-Force ’07 Expo, which turned out to be yet another successful and well-run Star Walking Inc. event celebrating 30 years of Star Wars in Australia. The Expo featured the outstanding Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebration banquet which had sold out of tickets months in advance. Along with a fantastic public exhibition of Star Wars costumes, props and rare collectables that left people in awe. Jedi-Force ‘07 had Bruce Spence (Tion Medon) and Peter Sumner (Imperial Officer/Pol Treidum) as guests of honour and was able to raise $6,500 for its nominated charity.
Exactly one year later in 2008, Star Walking Inc. held another special banquet, this time to celebrate the club turning 20 years old. The night was a celebration of the club’s finest achievements and included the cutting of the birthday cake by the three acknowledged co-founders: Shane Morrissey, Michael Wilson and Darren Maxwell.
Two years later in 2010, Star Walking Inc. in conjunction with the costuming groups 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, combined together to run The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary Celebration banquet which was a great success. Ironically this event was held in the very same hotel room as The Empire Strikes Back 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet 20 years before.
But there was sad news to come, in October 2011 Star Walking Inc. saw the retirement of its last co-founding member. After 23 years of service Darren Maxwell opted to depart from the committee and become a normal club member for the first time.
With the Star Wars franchise going through yet another period of 'lean times', it was felt all the best years of Star Walking Inc. were now behind it as things were really quietening down. But all that changed in September 2012 when it was suddenly announced that Disney had acquired Lucasfilm Ltd and were putting plans in place to make more Star Wars films.
The impact this unexpected news had on Star Walking Inc. was immediate as a brand new committee took charge of the club. Included in this change was the return of club founder Shane Morrissey after a 13 year absence, and Chris Brennan who returned as Director (for his third stint) after the retirement of Peter Jordan who had served the role for 7 years.
With a new lease of life, the club immediately began to make preparations for the new 2015 film premiere and supporting events. Indeed, the Force was back!
October 2013 saw the milestone of Return of the Jedi turning 30 years old along with Star Walking Inc. celebrating its own silver jubilee 25th anniversary - with an acknowledgment of this fact by George Lucas himself in a letter he sent to us!
To celebrate this doubly special occasion, Star Walking Inc. ran a banquet which was held 30 years to the very day (the very night in fact) when Return of the Jedi premiered in Australia. Although this banquet was to celebrate the 30th anniversary release of the film, it also included a special 50 minute photo/video DVD tribute to Star Walking Inc.’s 25 year long history, which covered every aspect of the club's existence from its conception in 1987.
2013 also saw the return of co-founder Darren Maxwell to the Star Walking Inc. committee after a brief two year absence.
To prove Star Walking Inc. was keeping up with modern times, October 2014 saw the club’s quarterly produced paper journal The Force, which had served the club for 26 years, be upgraded to a monthly, full-colour, digital only publication.
To support this new and exciting initiative, the club’s membership price was then REDUCED by 50% to actually be cheaper than when the club was first launched in 1988! Moreover, Star Walking Inc. believes this massive price reduction is a first for any science fiction fan club – anywhere!
2015 was a very busy time in the newly reenergised Star Wars universe, with Star Walking Inc. focusing on something particularly special, the highly anticipated premiere release of The Force Awakens.
To prepare for this auspicious occasion, Star Walking Inc. organised a special midnight screening of the film in both Sydney and Melbourne, with the Melbourne premiere being the largest private screening held in the country with a 740 seat Vmax cinema! To further celebrate this monumental event, attendees also received an exclusive, limited edition The Force Awakens one sheet movie poster created especially for Star Walking Inc. by Hugh Fleming. As to be expected, both screenings were a great success as a new era of Star Wars was ushered into the world.
With social media being so prevalent in modern society, 2016 saw Star Walking Inc. branch into a brand new arena of publicity and promotions by creating its own online monthly podcast. Aptly titled Star Talking, this production was hosted by Deputy Director Peter Sims and supported by club Director Chris Brennan and club co-founder Darren Maxwell. The first episode was launched in February and was very successful (note Star Talking can be heard from the Star Walking Inc. website and on iTunes).
April 2016 also saw a brand new innovation for Star Walking Inc.’s social club meetings, Skype sessions! Melbourne Skyforce played host to the club’s first ever live Skype session with Star Walking Inc. supporter and mega collector Steve Sansweet in San Francisco USA. The event featured a live broadcast from Steve’s Rancho Obi-Wan as he toured the site whilst engaging in back and forth communication with all the Skyforce participants.
With 2016 drawing to a close and the 40th year of Star Wars right on our door, it was time to finish the year on another high with the premiere of Rogue One. Star Walking Inc.’s special midnight premieres occurred in both Melbourne and Sydney with the Melbourne screening having over 500 people attend our Melbourne Vmax cinema.
2017 saw the arrival of Star Wars’ 40th birthday which was an exciting time for all Star Wars fans. Here at Star Walking Inc. we ran our special 40th anniversary banquet which saw over 100 fans from all over Australia come together to celebrate this momentous occasion.
There was also great joy to be had this year with the elevation of Sydney Skyforce committee member Melissa Quinton to a Life Member thanks to her 21 years of tireless work at the meetings (it’s hard to believe she only missed one meeting in all that time!). However, this year also saw some sadness with the second retirement of club founders Shane Morrissey and Darren Maxwell.
* * *
Aside from the numerous events listed here, Star Walking Inc. has run some wonderful non-Star Wars orientated banquets in its time, as well as assisting other clubs and conventions in running their formal dinner dances too. Alongside this have been many premiere screenings of non-Star Wars films the club has hosted, mainly during the early years.
Star Walking Inc. has also been involved in Star Wars costume appearances, TV/Radio/print promotions and publicity, parades, public library presentations, computer game product launches and assisting and/or advising on product licensee development. On top of this, Star Walking Inc. continues to set up visually stunning display tables at selected conventions and Expos.
Star Walking Inc. is a Star Wars fan club which has a long and proud history, and there is still lots more to come as the Star Wars saga looks forward into the future. This in turn will pave the way for Star Walking Inc. to do what it does best: provide a central outlet for all Star Wars fans to share their love of the Star Wars universe on common ground for many, many years to come.
Indeed, the Force is strong with Star Walking Inc.
Star Walking Inc. is the WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING STAR WARS FAN CLUB, and to think it all started in Melbourne, Australia. Now that's something we can all be very proud of.
May the Force be with you.
A brief history of Star Walking Inc.
Star Walking Inc. "The Star Wars Appreciation Society of Australia" was created by Shane Morrissey in June 1987 to replace the highly successful H.A.M.I.L.L.S Star Wars fan club which closed down a month earlier in May 1987. Shane, with assistance from co-founders Michael Wilson and Darren Maxwell, formed Star Walking Inc. to fill the void left by H.A.M.I.L.L.S, though no one could ever have guessed just how much would be achieved in the club's lifetime.
Despite being conceived in June 1987, Star Walking Inc. was not officially launched until October 14, 1988. The decision to run a new Star Wars club at this time was questioned by many as the entire franchise was going through a very quiet period (known as the 'lean times')
both in Australia and the rest of the world.
But the club flourished very quickly and within its first year of operation Star Walking Inc. ran its highly successful The Convention in September 1989. This large, multi-media science fiction event attracted over 300 people and featured Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) making his Australian convention guest of honour debut, and in the process becoming a good friend to Star Walking Inc.
With The Convention completed, Star Walking Inc. went on to organise The Empire Strikes Back 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet held in 1990. This event was a great success and paved the way for many more outstanding banquets and dinner dances to come.
Amongst these were the highly acclaimed Raiders of the Lost Ark 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 1991 which featured live performances of songs from the 1930s and 40s era, and the spectacular Return of the Jedi 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 1993. The Jedi banquet in particular was memorable for two reasons: first it featured a special mock wedding of 'Han and Leia’, and secondly, a congratulatory letter personally hand written by Mark Hamill was read out at the start of the night.
The Return of the Jedi 10th Anniversary banquet was held during Star Walking Inc. - The Second Convention which was another lavish and successful multi-media science fiction convention which included a wonderful public exhibition. The convention featured guests of honour Don Bies, the official Archivist at Skywalker Ranch, making his first Australian visit (and who also became a good friend to Star Walking Inc.), and Lisa Cowan, then staff writer for the US Official Lucasfilm Fan Club.
With the success of these two conventions under its belt, and with the "rebirth" of Star Wars through Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novels, the time was ripe for Star Walking Inc. to create something new and special, its own regular social club meetings.
In February 1994, the newly created Skyforce held its first social club meeting in St Marks Church Hall, Camberwell where around 100 eager Star Wars fans attended. Based on the success of this first club meeting, everyone knew Skyforce would go from strength to strength.
1995 proved to be a massive year for Star Walking Inc. With Skyforce running strong, it was only natural for Star Walking Inc. to create the first of what would become a national Star Wars institution, the Force conventions.
Force I "The First National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia" was the first fan run Star Wars convention to be held in this country - possibly even the world. Force I had Jon Berg (ILM), Nelson Hall (ILM), Steve Sansweet (Lucasfilm Ltd), Hugh Fleming (comic book artist) and Don Bies returning for a second time as guests of honour. The convention, which also featured a special Cantina themed dinner banquet, was a great success with Star Wars fans attending from all over the country.
With Skyforce running successfully for two solid years, the time had come for Star Walking Inc. to spread its wings nationally, so in 1996 Skyforce Sydney was launched making Star Walking Inc. the first science fiction fan club ever to run a social club meeting interstate.
Skyforce Sydney kicked off with over 300 people attending the first meeting which was just phenomenal!
This in turn proved that Skyforce really was: "a new Force rising..."
1997 was the year Star Wars: The Special Edition films were released theatrically and Star Walking Inc. was right there to hold special screenings,
both in Melbourne and Sydney, for all three movies.
Hot on the heels of The Special Edition releases were two of Star Walking Inc.’s biggest projects: Force II "The Second National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia", and the Star Wars 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet which was the largest science fiction fan club banquet held in the country.
Force II was a hugely successful convention which was further enhanced by the presence of the Sydney Skyforce team who brought a large amount of energy to the event. Force II featured Kenny Baker (Artoo Detoo) and Jeremy Bulloch and Steve Sansweet returning back to Australia as guests of honour.
The Star Wars 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet occurred during Force II and was so large it needed to be held in an aircraft hangar. Attendees were ferried by bus to the unknown location from the convention venue so as to keep the banquet venue a secret. Parked at one end of the hangar was a two-thirds scale Millennium Falcon built by Star Walking Inc. member Justin Dix (who eventually became the Artoo Detoo/See Threepio wrangler in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith). The night featured a wonderful song and dance number performed by Kenny Baker which helped make the banquet such a lavish success that it is still spoken about today.
With Skyforce meetings in Melbourne and Sydney being so successful, Star Walking Inc. believed Skyforce could now occur anywhere. As a result plans were put in place to run a Skyforce meeting in Brisbane in 1998. Skyforce Brisbane was a daylong event which was a resounding success, as evidenced by the fact that our meeting had a larger attendance than a locally run Science Fiction convention occurring the same day.
They say "time waits for no one" and Star Walking Inc. knows all about this. With the launch of the Star Wars: The Special Edition films, both in cinemas and at a fantastic video launch outside the Myer department store in Melbourne, the next major event for Star Walking Inc. to focus on was Force III "The Third National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia".
Yet before this convention could occur, Star Walking Inc. had to focus on another new Star Wars film launch.
The Phantom Menace hit the cinemas in May 1999 and Star Walking Inc. was right there holding multiple screenings in multiple states. No sooner had The Phantom Menace been released when Force III kicked off. This was a very popular and enjoyable convention, especially as it featured the world’s First International Star Wars Fan Film Festival, which attracted a lot of local and overseas entries. Force III featured Don Bies once again, along with actor Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka) from The Phantom Menace, as well as Star Wars authors Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole as guests of honour. This convention also featured our special Phantom Menace themed banquet with sets built by Justin Dix.
Both the convention and the banquet saw the emergence of many new fans joining the Star Walking Inc. community who were discovering our wonderful events for the very first time. Yet September 1999 also became a sad time for Star Walking Inc. as the club's director and founder, Shane Morrissey, along with several members of the executive committee - including co-founder Michael Wilson - chose to retire after 11 very successful years with the club.
Shane's departure allowed for new director Chris Brennan, along with a new committee, to fill the organisational roles needed to run the club.
With a fresh new committee on board, the way was paved for Star Walking Inc. to not only run the Raiders of the Lost Ark 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet in 2001, which saw Anthony Daniels (See Threepio) joining in on the action, but also to launch its first mini-con Force 3.5. This one-day event was held in 2001 and was a great success, so much so that hot on the heels of Force 3.5, was Force 3.75 held a year later in 2002, which also hosted The Second International Star Wars Fan Film Festival.
2002 also saw the release of the new Star Wars film Attack of the Clones, and Star Walking Inc. was right there making
many costume appearances and assisting in promotions.
It was also in 2002 where Star Walking Inc. got to bask in the limelight in a rather new and unique way with the launch of a
feature documentary about the club.
Throughout 1998 and 1999, two filmmakers captured moments of the Star Walking Inc. committee as they prepared for the release of The Phantom Menace along with our own supporting events. Their internationally released DVD, The Phandom Menace, focused much of its energy on the people who made up the 1999 Star Walking Inc. committee, as well the Force III convention, the banquet and the film premiere release of The Phantom Menace itself. To many Star Walking Inc. supporters, this documentary (which is now viewable on YouTube) is considered a wonderful time capsule for how the club looked during this highly productive and exciting period.
Whilst there was a lot of Star Walking Inc. activity occurring in Melbourne during the early 2000s, the Skyforce Sydney team continued to do their part for Star Wars fandom with the launch of their own one-day convention Jedi-Con in 2002. Jedi-Con featured two cast members from Attack of the Clones, Zak Jensen (Kit Fisto) and Mary Oyaya (Luminara Unduli) as guests of honour. This successful event coincided with the Magic of Myth Exhibition which was being held in Sydney at the time.
Meanwhile back in Melbourne, with two great mini-cons under its belt, 2003 saw the new Star Walking Inc. committee take on their greatest challenge,
a banquet to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Return of the Jedi.
The Return of the Jedi 20th Anniversary Celebration banquet (which also incorporated Star Walking Inc.’s 15th anniversary) was a resounding success as it featured numerous song and dance numbers which further cemented Star Walking Inc.’s ability to create spectacular events that never failed to please. It was during this period where Karen McGoldrick took over the role of Director of the club for a period of six months before retiring. After Karen’s departure, Chris Brennan once again took over the Director’s position.
Knowing that Star Walking Inc. still had the magical touch in creating great events, the next logical step was to run another convention to be called Force IV. As a fundraiser for this event, Star Walking Inc. ran another mini-con called The Day of the Sith which was very successful.
With The Day of the Sith completed, all eyes turned towards Force IV which would coincide with the release of the last of the Prequel Trilogy films, Revenge of the Sith in 2005. Once again, Star Walking Inc. was heavily involved in cinema promotions and costume appearances for the film.
Force IV “the Fourth National Star Wars Saga Convention of Australia”, was held on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June 2005 and was very successful in raising over $5,000 for the club’s nominated charity. This convention also hosted the Third International Star Wars Fan Film Festival. Force IV had Sandi Finlay (Sly Moore), Matt Sloane (Plo Koon), Sean Williams (author), Nicola Scott (comic book artist) and Justin Dix as guests of honour.
2005 also saw the retirement of Chris Brennan from the position of Club Director for the second time. Chris' departure paved the way for Peter Jordan, a long standing club member, to step into the top job.
With Force IV complete, Star Walking Inc. kept up its visual Star Wars presence by continuing to hold successful Skyforce meetings in both Melbourne and Sydney, with various members making appearances on television game shows, including Family Feud and 1 vs 100. Alongside this, Star Walking Inc. received exclusive licensing rights from Lucasfilm Ltd to create a special Star Wars 30th Anniversary Letterman leather jacket which were only available to Star Walking Inc. members.
October 2007 saw the running of the highly successful Jedi-Force ’07 Expo, which turned out to be yet another successful and well-run Star Walking Inc. event celebrating 30 years of Star Wars in Australia. The Expo featured the outstanding Star Wars 30th Anniversary Celebration banquet which had sold out of tickets months in advance. Along with a fantastic public exhibition of Star Wars costumes, props and rare collectables that left people in awe. Jedi-Force ‘07 had Bruce Spence (Tion Medon) and Peter Sumner (Imperial Officer/Pol Treidum) as guests of honour and was able to raise $6,500 for its nominated charity.
Exactly one year later in 2008, Star Walking Inc. held another special banquet, this time to celebrate the club turning 20 years old. The night was a celebration of the club’s finest achievements and included the cutting of the birthday cake by the three acknowledged co-founders: Shane Morrissey, Michael Wilson and Darren Maxwell.
Two years later in 2010, Star Walking Inc. in conjunction with the costuming groups 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, combined together to run The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary Celebration banquet which was a great success. Ironically this event was held in the very same hotel room as The Empire Strikes Back 10th Anniversary Celebration banquet 20 years before.
But there was sad news to come, in October 2011 Star Walking Inc. saw the retirement of its last co-founding member. After 23 years of service Darren Maxwell opted to depart from the committee and become a normal club member for the first time.
With the Star Wars franchise going through yet another period of 'lean times', it was felt all the best years of Star Walking Inc. were now behind it as things were really quietening down. But all that changed in September 2012 when it was suddenly announced that Disney had acquired Lucasfilm Ltd and were putting plans in place to make more Star Wars films.
The impact this unexpected news had on Star Walking Inc. was immediate as a brand new committee took charge of the club. Included in this change was the return of club founder Shane Morrissey after a 13 year absence, and Chris Brennan who returned as Director (for his third stint) after the retirement of Peter Jordan who had served the role for 7 years.
With a new lease of life, the club immediately began to make preparations for the new 2015 film premiere and supporting events. Indeed, the Force was back!
October 2013 saw the milestone of Return of the Jedi turning 30 years old along with Star Walking Inc. celebrating its own silver jubilee 25th anniversary - with an acknowledgment of this fact by George Lucas himself in a letter he sent to us!
To celebrate this doubly special occasion, Star Walking Inc. ran a banquet which was held 30 years to the very day (the very night in fact) when Return of the Jedi premiered in Australia. Although this banquet was to celebrate the 30th anniversary release of the film, it also included a special 50 minute photo/video DVD tribute to Star Walking Inc.’s 25 year long history, which covered every aspect of the club's existence from its conception in 1987.
2013 also saw the return of co-founder Darren Maxwell to the Star Walking Inc. committee after a brief two year absence.
To prove Star Walking Inc. was keeping up with modern times, October 2014 saw the club’s quarterly produced paper journal The Force, which had served the club for 26 years, be upgraded to a monthly, full-colour, digital only publication.
To support this new and exciting initiative, the club’s membership price was then REDUCED by 50% to actually be cheaper than when the club was first launched in 1988! Moreover, Star Walking Inc. believes this massive price reduction is a first for any science fiction fan club – anywhere!
2015 was a very busy time in the newly reenergised Star Wars universe, with Star Walking Inc. focusing on something particularly special, the highly anticipated premiere release of The Force Awakens.
To prepare for this auspicious occasion, Star Walking Inc. organised a special midnight screening of the film in both Sydney and Melbourne, with the Melbourne premiere being the largest private screening held in the country with a 740 seat Vmax cinema! To further celebrate this monumental event, attendees also received an exclusive, limited edition The Force Awakens one sheet movie poster created especially for Star Walking Inc. by Hugh Fleming. As to be expected, both screenings were a great success as a new era of Star Wars was ushered into the world.
With social media being so prevalent in modern society, 2016 saw Star Walking Inc. branch into a brand new arena of publicity and promotions by creating its own online monthly podcast. Aptly titled Star Talking, this production was hosted by Deputy Director Peter Sims and supported by club Director Chris Brennan and club co-founder Darren Maxwell. The first episode was launched in February and was very successful (note Star Talking can be heard from the Star Walking Inc. website and on iTunes).
April 2016 also saw a brand new innovation for Star Walking Inc.’s social club meetings, Skype sessions! Melbourne Skyforce played host to the club’s first ever live Skype session with Star Walking Inc. supporter and mega collector Steve Sansweet in San Francisco USA. The event featured a live broadcast from Steve’s Rancho Obi-Wan as he toured the site whilst engaging in back and forth communication with all the Skyforce participants.
With 2016 drawing to a close and the 40th year of Star Wars right on our door, it was time to finish the year on another high with the premiere of Rogue One. Star Walking Inc.’s special midnight premieres occurred in both Melbourne and Sydney with the Melbourne screening having over 500 people attend our Melbourne Vmax cinema.
2017 saw the arrival of Star Wars’ 40th birthday which was an exciting time for all Star Wars fans. Here at Star Walking Inc. we ran our special 40th anniversary banquet which saw over 100 fans from all over Australia come together to celebrate this momentous occasion.
There was also great joy to be had this year with the elevation of Sydney Skyforce committee member Melissa Quinton to a Life Member thanks to her 21 years of tireless work at the meetings (it’s hard to believe she only missed one meeting in all that time!). However, this year also saw some sadness with the second retirement of club founders Shane Morrissey and Darren Maxwell.
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Aside from the numerous events listed here, Star Walking Inc. has run some wonderful non-Star Wars orientated banquets in its time, as well as assisting other clubs and conventions in running their formal dinner dances too. Alongside this have been many premiere screenings of non-Star Wars films the club has hosted, mainly during the early years.
Star Walking Inc. has also been involved in Star Wars costume appearances, TV/Radio/print promotions and publicity, parades, public library presentations, computer game product launches and assisting and/or advising on product licensee development. On top of this, Star Walking Inc. continues to set up visually stunning display tables at selected conventions and Expos.
Star Walking Inc. is a Star Wars fan club which has a long and proud history, and there is still lots more to come as the Star Wars saga looks forward into the future. This in turn will pave the way for Star Walking Inc. to do what it does best: provide a central outlet for all Star Wars fans to share their love of the Star Wars universe on common ground for many, many years to come.
Indeed, the Force is strong with Star Walking Inc.
Star Walking Inc. is the WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING STAR WARS FAN CLUB, and to think it all started in Melbourne, Australia. Now that's something we can all be very proud of.
May the Force be with you.
