Is Mise & o sung wu,
My issue was a standard 9mm Browning HP. I used to practice at the range under Wynyard Station in Sydney.
I was in on the Hilton bust but we all knew the setup was in right from the start. Someone had to go down and it wasn't going to be the big "A" kids from Kirribilli Ave. Terry Griffiths argued with the bosses and it cost him his career.
I worked Tim Anderson for a couple of years on both side of the fence from inside The Ananda Marga with my wife under cover and later to get him and his mate released. Pederick was a nasty piece of work and I often wonder what happened to him.

o sung wu
Remember when it was an offence in the job to expose your weopon to the general public. It might have intimidated them.
Now that is the sole aim of the members.

Hi there CHRISGAFF1000...

You know my friend I reckon you and I passed each other 'like ship's in the night' ? Half of NSWPOL worked on the Ananda Marga thing, as did many others in those days ? As you'd well know Chris, Tim ANDERSON was one smart cookie (IQ wise) and somehow ingratiated himself into the company of Rev.Ted NOFFS and Bill CREW'S crowd, at the Wayside Chapel. Apparently he provided 'counselling' to those poor souls who frequented the laneways and the green spaces in and around the Cross particular along Kellett, Hughes and Orwell Streets.

I worked out of Darlinghurst then, so we had some pretty busy shifts, not only at the Cross itself, but Oxford St. more particularly, along the 'infamous wall' of the old Darlo Gaol, opposite St Vinnies Hospital. Where later, a M A J O R scandal was forestalled, involving a very prominent jurist who allegedly was engaging in some very immoral acts with boys. The problem being, the primary witness went belly up, and all was forgotten ? Not by all I can assure you.

What was the name of that 'sewage pit' of a Bar, located along Hughes Lane, almost behind the Wayside Chapel ? Was it the 'Costello Bar' ?I reckon we responded to that 'Den of Iniquity' more times than anywhere else at the Cross during the thirty six or so months I worked there ? Ah Happy days ?

Yup, the 9mm Browning HP pistol was the standard issue side arm of the Oz military. And a good, well proven piece it was too. The Wynyard Pistol Range eh ? Only invited gentlemen, and bank staff were permitted access to very select facility. In fact wasn't the club founded by the Banks ? The days when tellers were permitted handguns in their cages.

G'day there ONTHEBEACH...

Good to speak with you again ! You're absolutely correct about the 870P. It was a repeating, slide action SG, used by many hundreds of thousands of 'cockys' and sporting shooters, all over the western world. Interestingly, I did this course about a zillion years ago, and our instructors would say '...why do you guys call it a 'pump action' SG...' ? Demonstrating a 'pumping action' with a smile across their faces. '...It's a slide action they'd say...' ! Oh well, there's no accounting for these pedantic old instructors eh ?

You know ONB, that BRYANT fool in Tasmania has a lot to answer for when you think of it ? As a consequence of his gross criminality, a number of poorly advised public servants made some awfully erroneous recommendations to government as to the TYPES of F/A's that should be sanctioned. We all know what followed. Thus became a burgeoning market of illicit F/A's being covertly imported into OZ !

It's my humble view, the only F/A's that should've been sanctioned, whether or not the Port Arthur massacre occurred or not. Are those, that by design are specifically used as military weapons, and are configured as self-loading with a 'select fire' feature incorporated into it's original construction.

OTB, there wouldn't be that many of those types of F/A's out there in public hands I would've thought. From memory, most of the weapons that were freely available back then (that I can recall) were the old Russian, Chinese, or Eastern Bloc, ex military types like the SKK's or the old SKS etc. firing the antiquated but highly effective, 7.92 Warsaw, juxtaposed to the modern 7.62 NATO ctg. You could purchase one for around $120 - $160 depending on the condition of the furniture. V.good for larger feral game, but with the availability of many modern sporting calibres, who needs 'em ? Only advantage was the very cheap, eastern European Ball ammo, was all ?

There's was no doubt, John Howard was well intentioned, but poorly advised it ultimately proved.

Take it easy there OTB.

OTB,

Thanks for the link, I'd forgotten about the Qld police having .303s, probably most other States had them as well.
Most of the Mk I rifles were converted to Mk III standard and most of the surviving originals are ex police.

On the Wynyard Pistol Range.

A bit of history from the Sydney Pistol Club site:
"The Sydney Pistol Club Ltd was established in 1953, the first in NSW and arguably the 3rd pistol club formed in Australia

Our first shooting range was in a disused rail tunnel near Wynyard Station in the Sydney CBD. There was then a brief occupancy of a section of the Malabar Rifle Range where the allocated area was washed away several times.In 1959, after erection of range buildings, the Club moved to its present site at Cape Banks La Perouse."

The entrance to the range was to the right front of the ticket barriers on the George St side, just before the start of the exit concourse. I don't remember it resembling a tunnel at all but remember it as a very noisy concrete room.
Anyway, in those days the Wynyard Tram Station took up the tunnel space of numbers one and two platforms.

The then Commissioner of Police was the first patron of the club.

o sung wu,

You are forever the gentleman and it is always a pleasure. Usually something for me to think about as well, thanks.

Could you allow me to come back another time? Got to run.