Looking Back history feature: The Bulli Rifle Range

The Bulli Rifle Range in the 1940s

By MICK ROBERTS©

The 34th Battalion were regular users of the Bulli Rifle Range during the war year. The houses in the background are in Park Road.

STRADDLING the banks of Slacky Creek, fronting ‘Sharkey Beach’ between Sandon and Waniora Points, the Bulli Rifle Range operated for over 70 years.

Not long after the first mention of the range during December 1886, when the Bulli Rifle Club invited Wollongong marksmen to a shooting competition at its paddock, were concerns being raised over the range’s safety.

Although the first media mention of the range was in 1886, more than likely it was operating as early as 1883 when publican, Dan Dudley established the Bulli Volunteer Corps. There were about 50 members of the Bulli corps, one of many formed across the colony during these times as a reserve army, and who practiced their shooting…