ORANGE and District Pistol Club members have started the arduous task of rebuilding four of their five shooting ranges over the last two weekends.
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The dismantling of the 50 metre free pistol range was first. This range suffered the most damage, which required complete dismantling from the ground up.
Assistance with this dismantling was spearheaded by Doug Swain, Peter Keegan and Roger Bond.
Clean-up of range four was then completed by Dean Brus and Max Wicks with the assistance of Colour City Waste, who donated an extra large skip to hold the dismantled and waste material.
Orange City Council can also be thanked for their assistance in waiving the normal dumping charges for the damaged material.
While this work was being done on range four, the crew of Andrew Bond, Garry McKay, Brian Johnson and Maisie Harvey started the dismantling of ranges two and three.
These two ranges and the large scorers building were all burnt to the ground.
As the progressive dismantling continued it became more obvious just how much damage the ranges had suffered.
Most of the corrugated iron, roof battens and bearers will need to be replaced. They suffered so much heat damage that they are not safe to continue with.
Work continued over Easter Friday and Monday with the removal of dismantled steel and burnt rubbish from ranges two and three.
This included one tonne of cast iron from the 100 antique Strand picture theatre seats.
These were earmarked for sale to the second hand agents after the purchase of the new Olympic stadium chairs.
Spearheads of the Easter rubbish clearance were Derek Wells and his visiting brother Peter from New Zealand, Peter Keegan and Roger Bond who, between them, filled the biggest skip that Colour City Waster could muster.
The plan for the running and restoration of the pistol club is to still hold a restricted shoot each Saturday afternoon from 1.30 to 3.30pm (this week's shoot will be centrefire sports without the duelling stage) followed by a weekly committee meeting to plan and implement the reconstruction process.
These weekly Saturday meetings will continue until such time that the ranges have been rebuilt.
The main thing that is needed is more involvement from club members, both current and past, to be able to draw up a roster of various people who are available to work on alternate weekends.
If you have a few hours to spare on Saturday afternoons or from 10am on Sundays you will be very welcome.
Please contact Roger Bond on 6362-7105 for more details or Brian Johnson on 6361-3781.