Australia Match Trophy Presentation

National Rifle Association of Australia Chairman, Mr Steve Negus; President and Match Referee, Mr Bruce Scott; Executive Officer, Mr Steve Bingley; National Event Coordinator, Ms Michelle Fletchers; competitors, team officials, volunteers and supporters from Australia and around the world; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Yagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here today.

I extend a very warm welcome to the many international and interstate visitors who have travelled to Brisbane for these 10 days of competition, and at the outset congratulate the National Rifle Association on their excellent organisation of this event.

This includes successfully navigating the maze of regulations covering visitors’ firearms licences and the importation of firearms and ammunition.

It augurs well for 2032, when this exceptional facility is earmarked to host all official Olympic and Paralympic shooting disciplines for the Summer Games.

As Patron of the Queensland Rifle Association, it has been a true privilege to watch the closing stages of the Australia Match today.

This is only the third time the Match has been fired in Brisbane and the first since 2011, so this has given local shooters and supporters the first opportunity in 15 years to observe the focussed teamwork of the Open and Under 25s teams and the extraordinary communication between the wind coaches and the shooters.

It’s certainly a far cry from my own efforts with a 7.62 on this range as a member of The University of Queensland Rifle Club.

The importance of the Australia Match for the discipline of fullbore shooting cannot be overestimated, and the continuation of this contest is a great tribute to the passion and determination of shooters and clubs around the world.

When the first British team sailed to Sydney in 1907 to compete in the inaugural Empire Match, the contest was seen as a way of strengthening the bonds of kinship and loyalty between Australia, New Zealand and the so-called ‘Mother Country’.

However, the organisers were confident that the match would quickly extend to the other realms of the British Empire and immediately made plans to create an appropriate trophy.

A nationwide design competition was launched, prize money collected, and, two years later, the Commonwealth Council of the Rifle Associations of Australia announced the winning design by James Linton, a silversmith in Western Australia.

Linton’s concept for the trophy was nothing if not ambitious.

It took a year to make, and incorporated materials from every State of the Commonwealth; it featured precious stones including opal, peridot and ruby garnets as well as a majestic silver figure representing the Empire; and, most significantly, it had a pedestal of black marble.

I say ‘most significantly’ because that marble pedestal took the weight of the trophy to over a hundred kilograms and this quickly became a major challenge when the competition wasn’t held in Australia or was not won by the Australian team.

Unlike the gold medals of today, it was certainly not something that could be slipped into their carry-on luggage.

The eventual solution, after grappling with this dilemma for three decades, was to make the trophy a permanent resident of Australia.

After the Australian team won the Match in 1937 at Bisley, the colossal prize was shipped back to Sydney and, since 1964, has been entrusted to the care of the Queensland Rifle Association and permanently displayed in the Museum here at Belmont.

To acknowledge Australia’s National Rifle Association as the founders of the competition, the Empire Match changed its name to the Australia Match during Australia’s bicentenary in 1988, but that unique trophy has continued to celebrate the skill and dedication of the men and women around the world who strive to excel in this most exacting of sports.

Congratulations to the winning team — you will be very relieved that you do not have to arrange transport home for this extraordinary trophy but your team’s name will be proudly displayed, engraved in perpetuity on the shield.