Handgun competition in Oz...
G'Day Guy,
Okay, then how does one go about being able to own and compete with handguns in Oz?
A new applicant must submit to a complete police background check.
Having passed that, one must be accepted at a 'recognised' pistol club.
Except for police, military, large property owners, security guards and a few "dangerous business" (like crocodile keepers, for example) exemptions,
no other reason to own & shoot a functioning handgun is acceptable. If one
collects handguns, one must apply to the police for a permit to shoot them, usually on a specified date at a specified range location. After a six month 'probation period' with your club, you are permitted to own a handgun. It must be kept in an approved safe and transported only to and from the range, in your home state or with permission and a letter of invitation, to a match in another state. No other transportation is permitted on a target shooting permit. See the various police firearms registry websites here:
http://www.ssaa.org.au/newssaa/securitylegislation/lawindex.htm
Is it true that the police, as I've heard, monitor competition matches?
Yes, in a roundabout way. In the Northern Territory for example, twelve organised match shoots per year are required to retain an "H" licence and justify one handgun, 14 for two, etc.. Other states require less shoots than the N.T. and also apply a sliding scale to the number of shoots required to justify more than one type of handgun. The club secretary/shoot captain must record the matches, dates and shooter's name and licence number for each shooter and make this list available to police upon demand. In the N.T. a card is also issued by the police which must be produced each year to renew the "H" licence. In the ACT, where I am now, the licence is for five years and no shoot card is separately maintained - the secretary/shoot captain counts the shoots and issues a certificate of completion to renew club membership annually.
We visited to consider emigration in 1987, but I perceive that the society has a sort of boss mentality that would affect simple individual freedoms like gun ownership so that thought has been put on hold. At the time my wife wanted a few thousand miles between her and her family as well, but that has changed.
Yep on the "boss mentality". And not just with guns. There is an urban elite that is politically omnipotent. The recent bushfires in Victoria provide an example. The Green lobby effectively stopped all clearing of 'native' bush in Victoria. Australian native bush burns like gasoline - rural communities need to have firebreaks and clearance strategies in place. Whole small towns are incinerated during a hot dry spell, the urban elite says: "Why do people insist on living where there is a fire risk."
There is a very different perception of individual freedom here as compared to the U.S.. I won't credit the conventional wisdom: "Australia began as a convict settlement and never quite got away from the attitude", but certainly the average Aussie accepts/expects more government intervention in his/her life than at least rural/small town Yanks. Perhaps the fact that around 85% of Australians live in or within 100km of a major city has something to do with it.
My wife is from the Malabar area, her cousin has a sheep station in the Snowy highlands and the photo on my desk was taken on one of the best days of my life--striding across the paddocks in heavy jacket with my Aussie in-laws and the stock dogs moving the sheep just outside the photo.
My wife and I spend as much of every summer as we can up in the Snowies.
Got friends at Jindabyne we stay with. That part of Australia is very much unique - alpine habitat comprises only some 1% of the continent. Australia is an awe-inspiring, diverse, beautiful, amazing place, extremely poorly served by its politicians and political parties. Where isn't?
As for camel shooting: If you're gonna sell 'em get with it. They're breeding up so fast in the central N.T. and Western Australia that habitat is being severely degraded. Camels will eat whatever is left after cattle and sheep have quit!
A .45/70 with 300 grain JHP at 2,000 fps will drop a camel nicely. As the poster alluded, you gotta catch 'em first.