| Australian Championships 1993 |
| 6-9 October 1993 |
| Woomera Rifle Range, South Australia Results Markers' Poem |
| This event in 1993 was the inaugural Australian Championships. The Woomera Rifle Range had been extended to 1200 yards and the format (weather permitting) of the current Australian Championships is largely based on this event though now does not include 900 yards. In 1993, two shooters from the United Kingdom, Mike Davis and Philip Saul travelled to Woomera for this event. The following is a report by Philip Saul on the event. |
May You Shoot On Interesting Ranges
Philip Saul investigates the outcome of the Woomera 1000
References to the old Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times” should not be taken as a reflection on the hospitality of the Woomera Rifle Club or the South Australian Rifle Association.
Was it pure chance, we asked ourselves, or was there a malign influence that caused the chairman to say to us at the Elcho Hotel the results of the English Eight Club’s Autumn Meeting. Stuart Collings had dropped as many as two points on the first day and five on the second, including the making of 64 consecutive bullseyes.
Every year the Woomera Rifle Club organizes the “Woomera 1000” held at Easter. The prize of A$1,000 is eagerly competed for. It appears that it is often won by a local marksman. This is why.
Sometimes the wind at Woomera blows hard from the north and is very hot. It blows across the open desert with nothing to deflect it and makes up its own diversions. By the time it gets to Woomera it is extremely unsteady. After it has blown from the North for a while, it comes back again from the South, this time very cold. In between times it blows from other points of the compass. Ecclesiastes 1,6: “The wind goeth toward the south and turneth towards the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth according to his circuits”. Indeed it doth.
The Woomera range has recently been extended to ten targets and lengthened to 1200 yards. The 1993 meeting inaugurated the enlarged range. Davis and Saul were present.
Day 1, 5 October, Practice at 900 and 1000
Day 2, 6 October, 10 shots at 900,
Day 3, 7 October, 15 shots at 1200. Winning score 66. 15 at 1000, 15 at 1100. Winning scores 67 and 58
Day 4, 8 October. Reported for shooting (1200) at 0830. Wind too strong, targets blown out of the frame and over the mantlet. The range staff decided it was too dangerous for the markers, shooting abandoned.
Day 5, 9 October. Reported for 10 shots at 1000 at 0730. Best score 49. 10 at 1100 (Saul 3rd with 45) returned to 1200. Wind proved too great so we went forward to fire 15 at 1000. (Not everyone put their sights down enough). Best score 65. After shoot at 1000, a four man ten-shot team shoot at 1000. 40 was a good average score. Our team was third with less than 160.
Final results on aggregate Saul eighth,
Ecclesiastes 5, 16:
‘in all points as he came, so shall he go:
and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?”