The Brisbane Rifle Club has collapsed after legal action by a member who was ousted twice

An 85-year-old Brisbane shooting club will be wound up after a dispute with a member, who was twice ousted and alleged it was a toxic “boys’ club’’ that allowed bullying to flourish.

Jenni Hausler outside the Brisbane Rifle Club. Picture: Nigel Hallett

A female shooting enthusiast has taken aim and fired off a deadly round, snuffing out the Brisbane Rifle Club for good after it twice ejected her as a member.

Jenni Hausler has just won Supreme Court orders for the wind-up of the 85-year-old association, which she first joined in 1998 and now alleges operated as a “boys’ club’’ that allowed a toxic culture of bullying to flourish.

Hausler, a retired army veteran and two-time fullbore long range rifle state champion, sought the club’s liquidation after it was unable to pay nearly $25,000 in legal costs which the court awarded to her in June.

Those costs were associated with her legal victory in February, when the court ruled that the Belmont-based club must reinstate Hausler as a member after it failed to follow its own rules in ousting her.

Jenni Hausler

Her membership had been cancelled in July last year following a bizarre claim that she had somehow brought the club into disrepute over a technicality on a shooting range at state championships in Perth in late 2019.

Hausler rejected that allegation, claiming that her accuser remains anonymous and she was not given an adequate right of reply.

Incredibly, despite the court’s decision in February to allow her to stay in the club, the 30 or so members then voted unanimously once again to throw her out the following month. It’s understood members were unhappy with media coverage of the issue.

Hausler could not be reached for comment Monday but her lawyer, Jordan Anderton, said the ouster from the club for a second time had proved personally devastating.

“The club has allowed ego and bias to cloud its every decision by terminating our client’s membership a second time and making hateful and slanderous comments about her to its members,’’ Anderton wrote in a July letter to the club’s legal counsel.

“This has damaged our client’s reputation and caused our client an incomprehensible level of pain, emotional distress, hurt and humiliation.

“It is our client’s view that the actions she has taken, whilst personally very challenging for her, have enabled her to stand up to the toxic culture of bullying in the ‘boys’ club’ that has become the Brisbane Rifle Club.’’

The letter also rejected a settlement offer of $12,000 from the club, which had previously sought to pay just $20 a month to extinguish its debt.

Records show it had just over $25,000 in assets but less than $5000 cash in the bank. It also suffered nearly $17,000 in lost earnings in 2020.

Geoff Grosskreutz, a member of the club’s management committee, was reluctant to chat when City Beat caught up with him.

But he called the demise of the all-volunteer organisation “an absolute shame’’ and he denied any wrongdoing by members.

“This has been a nightmare for us,’’ he said.

“I reject the idea that we are bullying and harassing and have a toxic culture and all the things that have been said. We’ve got four female members.’’

As for the future, Grosskreutz said members might try to buy back some of the assets and start another club.