Western Australia Police have released an initial breakdown of the maximum calibre by land size restrictions for hunting-licence firearms, sparking further confusion among already anxious and stressed shooters in the state.
As part of the massively unpopular reforms to the Firearms Act, Western Australia properties registered as issuing hunting permissions will be subjected to calibre restrictions, with WAPOL essentially deciding if someone has enough land or wants too much gun for hunting purposes.
Under the new framework, firearms will be divided into three tiers, with properties divided into five minimum acreage requirement categories: 5 acres, 10 acres, 50 acres, 100 acres and 300 acres (WAPOL specifies acres, not hectares).
The official WAPOL Fact Sheet on the subject contains tables that “outline the minimum land size requirements” and states the tables “are intended to assist in understanding which types of firearms are generally considered suitable for different property sizes”.
Thee tables present a confusing matrix of property sizes, firearm tiers and firearm sub-tiers that is easily mis-read.
Further, the division of firearms seem to have been done with little apparent rhyme or reason why some are in one tier and others in another.
As an example of how it works, someone with a property size of 50 acres can issue permission for people to hunt on their land with any shotgun or rimfire rifle, but only a Tier 1 centrefire rifle (which includes such dissimilar calibres as .223 Remington, .357 Magnum and .45/70).
The fact sheet points out that property owners with hunting licences are exempt from the maximum calibre restrictions on their own land, but adds the caveat that Licensing Services will “assess the suitability of the firearm use against the declared purpose”.
It says “maximum calibre restrictions for registered properties may be increased following an assessment of factors such as, topography, landscape characteristics, and surrounding infrastructure”.
Property owners with a hunting licence must register their own property via the WAPOL Firearms Portal to “ensure compliance with the Firearms Regulations 2024 and support safe and lawful firearm use on private land”.
The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia’s Western Australia branch said in an update to members that the specifics around which calibres would end up in each of the “final five buckets” was still being worked out by WA Police Firearms Working Group and is expected to be released officially “in the coming weeks”.
Shooters Union Western Australia state advocate Steve Harrison described the released matrix as “bizarre” and “illogical” and questioned whether the people responsible for the placement of firearms into particular tiers had made their decisions based on Wikipedia searches.
“A .303, 7.62x51mm NATO and .30-06 are extremely similar cartridges, so why are the first two fine for 100-acre properties while the other requires 300 acres? Why is .22-250 in the same category as a .308?”
Mr Harrison said rather than achieving its aim, the fact sheet just added to the general confusion and fear surrounding the new gun laws.
“This information still makes it clear that WAPOL can do whatever they like regarding calibre approvals for land sizes anyway,” he said,
“Absolutely none of the shooters in Western Australia trust WAPOL or the Cook Government as far as they could throw them, and we simply have no guarantees that whatever is in these calibre-to-land-size tiers and categorisations won’t randomly change at any time depending on whether someone wants a ‘tough on crime’ media headline that week or not.
“The only person who should be deciding what firearms can be used on a property is the landholder. That’s how it works in literally every other state and territory in Australia.
“The onus is on the shooter to ensure the projectile doesn’t leave the property, and no-one has been able to explain why that same principle shouldn’t remain in effect here in the west.”
This is ludicrous! Every tier 1 centrefire and the shotguns using slugs would have more power and range than every tier 2 airgun or rimfire. Big bore air guns are especially suited to smaller properties.
Royce, very good analysis. One wonders if there were funny seeds in the Focaccia bread that the analyst who prepared it was eating while sipping on a skinny late in the Police cafeteria.
In tier 1 we see some obsolete and moribund short range rounds along with some long range hot rods like the .204 and big game rounds like the .458!
Madness