diff --git a/REQUIRE b/REQUIRE
index ff81344f..08fd7f48 100644
--- a/REQUIRE
+++ b/REQUIRE
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 julia 0.4
-Compat 0.9.5
+Compat 0.17.0
 Conda 0.2
 MacroTools 0.2
diff --git a/src/conversions.jl b/src/conversions.jl
index d2748184..9dd1451b 100644
--- a/src/conversions.jl
+++ b/src/conversions.jl
@@ -138,7 +138,7 @@ pyptr_query(po::PyObject) = pyisinstance(po, c_void_p_Type) || pyisinstance(po,
 # I want to use a union, but this seems to confuse Julia's method
 # dispatch for the convert function in some circumstances
 # typealias PyAny Union{PyObject, Int, Bool, Float64, Complex128, AbstractString, Function, Dict, Tuple, Array}
-abstract PyAny
+@compat abstract type PyAny end
 
 function pyany_toany(T::Type)
     T === Vararg{PyAny} ? Vararg{Any} : T