Thread: A Blast From the Past. Firearms Licensing Old Style.

Even Australia where they seem to be trying to out do us & the UK for bureaucratic stupidity, were known for some common sense /real life experience application of rules not long ago .Back in the 80's when l got my first taste of guiding & was working in the remote Top End whenever l could, as l gained experience /reputation to get full time work guiding .

So l could support me & the missus in remote areas even while the guiding work slowed down during the "Wet"or monsoon season ,l went & did my Professional Helicopter Shooters qualification course,then held just outside a little country town about a 1 1/2 hours out of Darwin.After passing that me & 3 others who passed the course went to the little 2 man cop shop with the Instructor & paper work in hand .The cops & the Instructor were both locals & old mates ,l was the only one actually living/ working in a remote area so the instructor got me to wait while the other blokes were finished & went outside & he explained to the old copper how l was working as a guide,living remote etc & got the copper to agree to ticking the box giving me a carry licence for a Handgun as well .

A couple of years later l was working basically year round guiding ,chopper shooting & catching scrub bulls for a Aboriginal Corp,trying to make ends meet during the off season during the "Wet",to get to know the locals & gain trust to be given access to traditional lands/sacred sites etc .This meant l would at times be driving a 2 trailer cattle truck 100's of miles across rough dirt tracks, as well as Bull Catchers,trail bikes & Quads etc all while never having a truck licence, as we were in the middle of now where & would rarely ,apart from Aboriginal locals, ever see any one else . One day we were stuck at camp as a early wet season storm had came through & the cops from the nearest town ,(probably 300 miles away by road), flew in with the mail plane which they did once in a blue moon to check on all the road vehicles rego etc ,no one was on the most wanted list hiding out & no sly grogging to the locals was going on .

The camp boss asked him about getting us licences for the trucks etc while he was there,he told me to hop in the old Bedford tray truck & take him for a spin up & down the air strip the old girl had hardly any clutch left from towing other vehicles out of bogs etc so you had to tickle through the gear & after we did a 10 minute drive & rocked up back at camp he promptly pulled a pad from his brief case & l thought would just give us a licence for the small tray truck, instead after checking with the boss what l had been up to he gave me a full Road Train Licence with the added livestock accreditation ,he then also gave me a bike licence with out even asking .

If any of them were caught doing it now we would all be thrown into the clanger for years .