Old Time GUNS in AUSTRALIA & Good Times:

I've taken-up 'FLOWER' ARRANGING:

Smooth Bore, Box Lock, Low-Cost 

Belgian Made "MINERS PISTOL"

- these cheaply made canon barrel pistols were sold as protection for 5/- (five shillings) with a bag of powder plus shot, to New Chum Australian gold miners coming off the boats.

Me and now 77y.o  'Prickles' used to fly the ditch every year on pilgrimage to SMITHS SPORTS STORE in George Street, Sydney - and to the Horsley Park Gun Shop. - You could find gunstuff bargains there not available in New Zealand

No5 BIG 'ring' needed to fit over "Flash Hider"

 .. e.g a BAYONET for a Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine - one I bought from Smiths for a few bucks, from a box full of them, after Prickles kept kicking my foot. - I should have bought the bloody lot, as I later got $450 for it .. more than you would have paid for the SMLE rifle it fits.

Prickles would lead me to every Gun Shop in the Sydney area (and Melbourne) hopping on'n'off buses - where we'd spend hours chatting to the occupants and drinking free coffees. - Each venue took a whole day as he was physically UNABLE to pass any pub without going in for a pint or three of VB. 

We were once there in Sydney at the same time as the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras ... you can bet we spoke in deep gruff voices on that trip. - One year we 'did' both the Sydney Gun Show and the Melbourne Gun Show the following week. - We had a great time in one Melbourne Gun Shop with the owner - chatting for hours only to learn on the news that he was a gangland criminal murdered a couple of weeks later.

- We used to "do" the Lightning Ridge OPAL OPEN Pistol Matches for it's paper-bark barbecue, and loved that Outback Hospitality.

I see that 75 year old Vittorio Stefanato who built his Castle on his claim at the Lightning Ridge - has gone down for 14 years for murdering a woman, by shooting

 her, for demanding money.

- Kiwi Prime Minister 'Piggy' Muldoon used to reckon that every kiwi leaving NZ for Australia raised the IQ of both countries ..

I took-over my S&W 610  10mm revolver one year to use in a match - and the Sydney cops gave me a 30 Day CARRY PERMIT on landing .. but when I arrived back at Christchurch the Immigration Officer stepped back and started to tremble, nearly fainting when I told him that I was carrying a firearm and would he please call for the airport Cops. - the cop arrived and said .. "Hello Marty - been expecting you mate" ..

In 1852 William HenryWright (another Pom) took charge of Mount Alexander goldfield in Victoria at a salary of £900 and set up Central Camp near Castlemaine to control a population of some 25,000. His staff was inexperienced and his duties 'onerous and varied' with the 'most inadequate means either in material or men' - but he worked so tirelessly and effectively that Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe appointed him Chief Commissioner of the goldfields on 1 May. He warned La Trobe of the defects of the 1851 licence system and opposed the compulsory licence hunts which were provocative to the diggers; however, his flexibility kept the situation

under control.

- Things were so bad on the Mount Alexander diggings in 1852, that the Gold Commissioner (who had no troopers to pursue villains with) authorised all to shoot on sight anyone who tried to enter their tents. - How different this ruling from the Commissioner was compared with today, when politicians and the judiciary sternly inform the public that they have no right to self-protection against criminals and their twisted reasoning has effectively succeeded in disarming the lawabiding citizens of Australia.

Hmm. - Well here we have an MP and lawyer Golriz Ghahraman so bloody irrational as to think she'd get away with repeatedly shoplifting thousands of bucks worth of gear from shops ..

How times have changed eh. Women with penises, Men having babies .. MP's as thick as sh*t.

Marty K.