Issue link: http://ssaansw.uberflip.com/i/223437
Good things come to those who wait More than fifteen years after the first development application was submitted, SSAA NSW Macksville Branch finally have their own place to shoot. Beginning in 1993, SSAA NSW Macksville Branch was originally formed with the vision of allowing local shooters to shoot locally. "The closest Branch to us at the time was Port Macquarie which was more than an hour and a half for most of the people in our area," says SSAA NSW Macksville Branch President Denis Rowe. But none of the earliest members, people such as Brian Moncrieff, Noel Spalding, Bruce Noll, George Marshall and Keith Coombs could have imagined the difficulties they were to face. "We put our first Development Application into the Council in 1996, retracted this application in 1998 and submitted a new and more comprehensive Development Application shortly after. After 6 years of bureaucratic bungling and red tape within government departments we finally managed to get the application approved in 2004 with the help of SSAA NSW Executive Officer at the time, Richard Gawned who attended and addressed the last Council meeting and was instrumental in helping us obtain the DA approval. This DA had been before Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (NSW) Inc. Council meetings on several occasions before but the objectors barrister would table an advisory letter at the 11th hour which would result in Council deciding to defer their decision. We spent the next four years attempting to get amendments made to some of the DA's untenable conditions of consent. In 2008 we received approval for the DA with revised conditions of consent and began development of the range." As well as the onerous Council conditions imposed and a Local Environment Plan that did not permit the development of a Sporting or Recreation facility, the Branch also had to deal with objections from a well resourced group of local residents with highly adept professional legal representation. But in spite of these challenges, SSAA NSW Macksville Branch prevailed with the first shots at the approved 100m range being fired in January of this year. And with approval already gained for a 200m fairway and covered shooting bays, shooters in Macksville finally have a place to call their own. 14