Calibre Sports Inc: Gun club successfully challenges Mitchell Shire restrictions

A tribunal has found expanding a shooting range’s operating hours and patron limit is “unlikely to be intrusive”, despite community and council objections.

A Central Victorian gun club has successfully fought to increase its patron limit and operating days despite concerns the noise will impact local residents.

Calibre Sports Inc, which runs a shooting range in Broadfield, challenged a decision by the Mitchell Shire to deny changes to its permit, taking the fight to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The club, which had been operating since 2013, applied to increase the number of shooters allowed on site from 120 to 180, and allow shooting seven days a week.

The application followed two previous amendments in 2013 and 2017, removing an operating limit of 24 days per calendar year.

The amendment was denied by Mitchell Shire amid concerns about unacceptable noise impacts to surrounding rural farms.

When the matter came before council, one objection was received saying the local community had lost trust in the club.

“Calibre Sports has continued to expand their hours and days of operation,” the objector wrote.

“The objector and the community feel that they may have been less than open in their ultimate intentions leading to a lack of trust on our part”.

The matter was heard in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on July 21, with a final order handed down by senior member Ian Potts on August 18.

Counsel representing Calibre Sports Inc, Angelina Bell, told the Tribunal the club had asked for the permit changes as current conditions did not provide enough “flexibility” to hold multi-day contests.

They presented results of acoustic testing, which showed lower noise levels from the range since concrete berries were installed in 2014.

The Tribunal heard noise emissions from the range are “so low” that they will not be heard inside nearby homes and are only marginally above background noise levels at the nearest residence.

Senior member Potts granted the permit revisions, concluding the noise is “unlikely to be intrusive”.

“The evidence, when objectively assessed, does not indicate intrusive noise emissions will be heard at these residences,” he said.

“It therefore does not seem to us there is a need to curtail the shooting range operations.”