Our Story
In 2019 the Club celebrated its 55th anniversary, having been established in 1964 on an earlier small bore rifle range at what is now known as the Belmont Shooting Complex.
Tom Petrie and Tom Hannay were instrumental in getting the Club operational in the early days with just four original members – Tom Petrie, Tom and Liz Hannay and John Tunstall.
Tom Hannay
Liz Hannay
Tom Petrie
Back then, members shot at fixed straw butts. Later, in the 1980’s, permanent target butts of sawn edge-on stramit were installed, with a staggered shooting line. All this is a far cry from the modern mobile butts we have these days that enable a common shooting line.
During the 1980’s, extensive earthworks were undertaken to develop the Hannay Range into a level 100m x 100m area, surrounded by earthen mounds, complete with a permanent clout pad.
1980’s Clubhouse Redevelopment
In 2000, the Club hosted the British and Italian Olympic teams for their pre-Olympic training. The Archery Australia High Performance Squad, our future Olympians, now trains permanently at Mount Petrie Bowmen.
2011 saw the opening of our 30m x 30m indoor shooting hall where night-time shoots at 18m and 25m are held weekly. Then Club President, Mike Cowie, was the driving force behind the hard work of finding the necessary funds and supervising the complex construction phase. In the immediate wake of the hall opening, Club membership numbers more than doubled. Now the hall is used for introductory courses, special events and regular evening shoots. This major construction was undertaken with the assistance of federal and state government grants.
Mount Petrie Bowmen, 2019
Since then, with assistance from Brisbane City Council, Queensland state government and Sports Australia funding, we have embarked on a number of significant site developments directed at improving access for persons living with a disability. This includes an 86m sunshade over the outdoor shooting line, and a network of concrete paths, car park and ramps that make movement around the site for people using wheelchairs or with mobility difficulties, seamless and safe.
In 2014, to celebrate the Club’s 50th anniversary, a new logo that honours our past was adopted.
The Club has hosted the Senior National Championships in 2003, 2004, 2010 and 2011 and the National Youth Championships in 2006 and 2013. In 2014 MPB hosted the Trans-Tasman Challenge, a tournament for youth archers from either side of ‘the ditch’. The Para and Vision Impaired National Championships were held at MPB for the first time in 2019 and again in 2021. We also host the National and SQAS Indoor Championships on a regular basis, along with other State level events.
