Is Misw, You're just using this argument to have a go at the greens. Of course it's pollution, but it's one night in the year and a drop in the bucket compared to all the other sources of pollution.

As for the 'silent' RSPCA, well I saw a lot of material on TV about the impact on dogs and cats with advice about what to do to protect your pets. Just now I googled 'RSPCA fireworks' and got 300,000 hits - the first ones up were warnings across Australia from the RSPCA. The RSPCA were not 'strangely silent', perhaps you only hear what your want to?

Gun hobbyists had no part in training the non-AIF conscript soldiers in the use of weapons such as Bren guns, Sten guns, mortars and other modern weapons for killing Japs. The few people who were in school cadet corps (which long preceded the end of the war) were trained mainly with Lee Enfield .303 rifles and had some army training at Watsonia and Puckapunyal - but sure as hell not enough to take on the Japs in the New Guinea. The non-AIF soldiers were let down by grossly inadequate pre-battle training as some posters have noted.

Cossomby,

The RSPCA doesn't go to the heart of the matter, were they concerned for the welfare of the animals they would condemn the use of fireworks for entertainment, but tat would be rocking the boat.

Emperor,

The Australian Army were so out of touch with reality that they did their level best to stop the development and production of the Owen Gun, to the detriment of the war effort and the efficiency and safety of their own soldiers.

Even up into the 1960s the Army was teaching completely wrong use of aperture sights and the basic method of using the Owen Gun was a stupid drill movement that, had it been followed, would surely have led to the death of the user if in combat.

Julian, as the senior CUO of a 3 platoon school cadet corps in the later 50s, I have a little knowledge of school cadets, & the training. Yes we had WW11 303s, but we also shot the bren gun on the range twice a year.

I'm sure those kids up on Kokoda would have loved to have a lot of Bren guns, unfortunately they never had enough ammunition to waste spraying the jungle with a bren for more than a couple of sections.

My son has until recently been giving weapons training to new navy officer cadets. The hardest bit was getting many of them, & not only the ladies, to keep their eyes open, when the things went BANG. It would be most advantageous if all prospective recruits were required to get themselves some range time, before joining.

EJ, you say, "...let down by inadequate training..."
Also let down by lack of: Effective leadership (Blamey & Co). Supplies - particularly ammunition leading to suicidal charges with fixed bayonets and bare hands. Food adequate to sustain them. Clean water & medical treatment.

"Physically, the pathetically young warriors of the 39th were in poor shape. Worn out by strenuous fighting and exhausting movement, and weakened by lack of food and sleep and shelter, many of them had literally come to a standstill. Practically every day torrential rains fell all through the afternoon and night, cascading into their cheerless weapon pits and soaking the clothes they wore, the only ones they had. In these they shivered through the long chill vigil of the lonely nights when they were required to stand awake and alert, but still silent."
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/3a7f218a-d2d6-49fd-b6f6-240a55058ed2/files/awm-kokoda-report.pdf

It continues today, inadequate supplies (boots now made in China, along with many other essential items of kit rendered useless after a day in the field). Maybe Cossomby, Paul and Toni are on the right path...our ADF doesn't need to be trained, nor does anyone else need to be proficient in firearms use either...perhaps we don't even need a defence force at all ?

We'll just let the sale of Australia to the foreign interests continue, hammer our swords into ploughshares & bend over to cop the inevitable Chinese or Indonesian flavoured pineapple.

Yes, in the 1920's and '30's young boys at Sydney Boys School, Kings College and others had small ranges on site. Other schools with Cadet units used ANZAC Rifle Range at Malabar or any range nearby in the case of boarding schools in country areas.
As I posted earlier in the thread, we don't need rifle ranges anymore, as the 'realistic and safe' video gaming industry has provided all we need in that regard.

God help us.

I might add that the Australian Army had many thousands of Smith and Wesson revolvers that were safe to carry fully loaded with six rounds but the safety feature that made this possible was removed so that they were brought into line with less safe issue revolvers and thenceforward only loaded with five rounds.

Also the very effective .455 Webley revolvers were replaced by .38 calibre
pistols to bring us into line with Britain.
Never mind that the new .38s were woefully inadequate for military use.

One did much better in the Army if one was a footballer and not a rifle enthusiast, any interest in marksmanship rather put one beyond the pale as well as wasting ammunition.