Town's oldest sport has rich history

It may surprise some readers to learn Geraldton’s oldest sport is rifle shooting.

It dates back to 1863, when target shooting started with enrolled pensioner guards from the small settlements of Geraldton and Greenough.

Pensioner guards were ex-army volunteers, and some of our early settlers were veterans of the Crimean War.

With targets set up on the Greenough flats, they were not firing rifles, but muzzle-loading Enfield muskets of a hefty .557 calibre.

October 1876 saw the pensioner guards help form the Geraldton Rifle Volunteers, a militia unit with a shooting range that fired north-south along Fitzgerald Street, from about where Geraldton Primary School now stands.

When the Enfield Snider rifle arrived in 1880, shooting as a sport became even more popular, but in 1885 the range was moved west, onto a site running parallel with Crowther Street in Beachlands.

By early last century, the Geraldton shooters were winning inter-club tournaments, but in 1914 they were moved to Separation Point.

In the 1940s they had to move yet again, to what is now the suburb of Rangeway, from where they were bundled off again in 1974 but at least left their name.

A farm west of Walkaway was their home until 1985, when a platoon of the Australian Army constructed the club’s current range at Greenough.

Its long and colourful history has seen Geraldton Rifle Club produce three winners of the prestigious King’s or Queen’s prizes, including a four-time winner.

It is with good cause Geraldton Rifle Club can claim a place of honour in the history of Geraldton.