Iain

A good starting point in Sydney is the Library of the Royal United Services Institute, in the Defence building in Pitt Street (between Park and Bathurst streets).  They have the best collection of late 19th -early 20th century military manuals I know of, and these are generally all able to be borrowed.  These would include a range of works such as instructional manuals on infantry drill and marksmanship training.

After WWI the text of these gets more perfunctory and directed, but the older works assumed that if they wrote everything down in massive detail you could build it from scratch.  There is a small recent booklet available on the history of the ANZAC Rifle Range at Malabar.  I have a copy if you need it.

Denis Gojak

>>> Iain Stuart <[log in to unmask]> 11/04 6:50 pm >>>
I am doing an assessment of a rifle range that has been in use since 1861. I
was wondering whether anyone can point to me a source of information on
rifle range design and practice as my oral history sources have noted that
ranges used to be different in the past but cannot say how or when. This
range has a concrete mantlett (concreted by the US Army in WWII) and metal
target hoists as well as the earthen butt. I have some evidence that the
mantlet and target hoists might have been introduced on the site in 1880.

There are only 11 rifle ranges on the Register of National Estate in
Australia but most of them are significant for their remnant natural
vegetation rather than any military history they may have.

Iain Stuart
Principal, Archaeology and Heritage Management
HLA-Envirosciences Pty. Ltd.