MEDEAs 2025: Honouring Doug Lucas, A True Melbourne Drag & Community Legend

Doug Lucas stands as a living archive of queer joy, and a staunch queer elder in Melbourne’s glittering LGBTQIA+ nightlife. 

As he prepares to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Melbourne Excellence in Drag and Entertainment Awards (known as the MEDEAs), we celebrate not just a performer—but a pioneer whose legacy is woven into the fabric of Victoria’s queer history.

In a time when homosexuality was criminalised, Doug felt the imperative to carve out spaces where queer people could breathe freely. “We needed somewhere to go where we could feel safe to be ourselves,” he told Star Observer. 

In 1975, he launched Melbourne’s first gay disco at the Union Hotel, and in 1977, he co-founded the legendary Pokeys with the late Jan Hillier. 

Intended to be a casual Sunday “wind‑down”, Pokeys quickly became a weekly phenomenon. 

“We started without any sets or props… but it ended up being a huge do. We used to put on a massive show. They were the biggest drag shows Melbourne had ever seen,” Doug recalled.

Every Sunday night, Pokeys would swell with up to a thousand people — it was, very clearly, a space that was needed.

Doug Lucas: larger than life

From the Union Hotel’s fashionably late licence to the explosive stage production at Pokeys, Doug was a key figure in shaping Melbourne’s queer entertainment.

His signature musical-comedy style was big, bold, unapologetic, and his shows featured people of all sexualities and gender identities.

“A full drag show would be drag kings and drag queens together. That’s what I love,” he said.

Lucas was perpetually dedicated to making audiences laugh, dance, gasp, and feel seen. To Doug, a performance was about bringing the room with him: “I’ve always made it about the audience — I was the host, welcoming them into my home.” 

While Melbourne is home, Doug has travelled all over the country over the years, performing and hosting in every state and territory. “Honestly, I’ve been everywhere… I was always in a car, on a plane, on a bus,” he laughs. 

Creating community during the HIV/AIDS crisis

During the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s, Pokeys became more than a beloved tradition—it was a lifeline and a sanctuary. 

Doug and his fellow entertainers offered both remembrance and sustenance: organising benefits, sharing resources, raising funds for the AIDS Council, and supporting the early days of radio advocacy like Joy FM. 

That energy, born in a time of tragedy, also created deep bonds. 

“It actually created more of a community… we become the voice piece, but we also become like the mother hen,” he reflected.

For over five decades, Doug has mentored countless performers. He is fiercely generous — and famously honest. “If you want an honest answer, that’s what I’ll give you,” he laughs.

Doug’s hard-won advice for new drag artists is as sharp as his eyeliner: immerse yourself in shows, learn from the best, but make sure to carve your own identity. 

“Don’t look like everyone else! Develop your own individual look,” he says. 

“Drag should be an extension… of the person,” he shared, laughing as he recalled that while he mostly used his real name as a drag name, he would sometimes refer to his drag persona as his ‘sister’ (who was named ‘Elly’ after Elly Lukas, a famous Australian model in the 50s).

Asked his proudest achievement, Doug said he never performed with accolades in mind. And yet, he says, to be honoured by one’s own community is profound. 

“Getting this Lifetime Achievement Award, it’s very special… to have that respect from people, from my community.”

The MEDEAs

The MEDEAs stand as the city’s annual love letter to queer performance. 

Now in its second year, the awards centre drag, burlesque, and cabaret in a ceremony that honours kaleidoscopic commitment to queer diversity.

Onstage brilliance and backstage heroes are celebrated alike: drag artists, performers, DJs, choreographers, costume magicians, and community spirits. 

And none are more deserving of recognition than Lucas, whose daring creativity and nurturing leadership created the very ecosystem in which Melbourne drag thrives.

His story is not nostalgia — it’s a living testament. To dance loudly, to shine bright as exactly who you are, and to build the spaces that you and your community needs; places where queer people can live, love, and leave their mark in history.

Here’s to Doug Lucas — living legend, compère extraordinaire, mother hen, and trailblazing drag icon. 

The Melbourne Excellence in Drag and Entertainment Awards will be held on 16 June 2025 – find out more at themedeas.com.