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After 70 years, the Rodney Gun Club is firing its last salute, but not before it is immortalised in the Warkworth Museum.
Member Lawrie Nunn says the club is closing down because most of the members have passed on and the club lacks a ground to shoot on.
“We used to shoot in what is now Ascension Winery, but eventually the area grew and neighbours got sick of the noise and pellets on their roofs,” Lawrie says.
The Rodney Gun Club started at the end of World War II and the oldest trophies still in the cabinet date back to 1949.
When the club went into recess in 1997, its assets were sold and the money invested with the BNZ.
The funds slowly increased and have matured into a sizeable $18,900, which the club is donating to the Warkworth Museum.
Museum manager Victoria Joule says the money will be used for digitising the museum’s collection of 15,000 heritage photographs.
The museum has negatives, slides and glass plates which can be made accessible thanks to the donation.
The museum will also house club artefacts including old trophies and photographs as part of its rotating displays.
Victoria says a museum doesn’t often get to set up an exhibit alongside living members of its subject.
“If any family members of the club have photos or gear related to the club, the museum would be happy to accept them,” Victoria says.
Lawrie says the last remaining members decided the museum would be the best cause to give the money to considering the club had now reached antiquity.
“I’m the newbie at the club because I’ve only been here since 1972. I’m still an outsider because I wasn’t born in the district,” Lawrie says.
Members say it is difficult for small gun clubs to exist because of regulations about noise and opposition from ‘nimbys’.
“I was in the artillery for a while and we didn’t have hearing protection, so noise isn’t a problem for me anyway,” Lawrie says.
He says clay shooting is a whole new frontier in 2020 with electronic laser guns that shoot flying targets with sensors.
In its heyday, the club held an annual Christmas shooting event and people from Whangarei to Waitemata would attend.
