SOUVENIR-CHARTERS TOWERS, 1872 TO JULY, 1950 Page 65

Champion of the Club is Mr. Sam Ball. Sam has taken out most local trophies over the past two years and has also added more than one North Queensland title to his credit. He won the North Queensland Single Barrel Championship in 1949. Other very keen shots of the present day are V. H. (Barney) Colless, Percy McDonald, the Archer boys, Bill, Charlie jnr., George and young Kevin. Sid Worsfold, Lyman Caton, Bill Carrington, Lofty Young, Jack and' Charlie Brownson, Earl Baker, Albert Castres,

Mick Mitchell (Mingela), Jack Christenson, W. Baxter, Jack Bray (Pentland), Jim Hardy (Richmond). Norm Crago, Keith Butler. Among the younger lads who are doing fairly well are Dick and Billy Brownson. The youngest member of the Club is John Colless. John will follow in his father's footsteps. One lady shooter usually visits the tracks, Mrs. J. Christenson, who is a sister to Fred Blackman, th.e Secretary of the Townsville Gun Club.

OUTDOOR SPORTING FISHING-SHOOTING

WITH the Burdekin and Fletcher Rivers at our back door we Charters Towersites are indeed fortunate, it is a sportsmans paradise; then we have Powlathanga Lakes where the game is usually plentiful; it has always been
said that to shoot these great lakes successfully a hundred guns would be needed and this is quite true.

Many a party spends a most enjoyable week-end or a week for that matter at some of the favourite spots along the Burdekin and Fletcher Rivers. What tales can be told, I would take up a short space to describe what I think was one of the best outings I have ever had.

To start off with I will say that it would have been impossible not to have had a good time with the party I was with, the captain was that good scout Barney Colless together with old J. B. Wishart, Frank (Dinty) Stanger, Keith Butler and myself.

We left one Sunday morning to have a week of fishing and shooting on the Burdekin River, just above the Ravenswood Falls. To get into the river at this particular spot it was necessary to secure a guide and this we arranged at Ravenswood whilst having a spot or two at Tess Delaney's. Tess did everything possible to make our short stay enjoyable and although due to something or other there was no beer on tap we got by, with a drop of Scotch and an apple cider or two.

After leaving Ravenswood we had a good road to follow until we were within a few miles of the river then it called for careful watching and the use of every known means of natural direction finding devices. Many a time Barney asked our guide "are you sure you're not lost mate," but the guide would only reply "just a little to the right, now to the left, now make for that clump of cottonwood trees near the hill. However, we eventually reached the river, and were all soon busily engaged in the preparation of the camp, and as we were to stay for a week we decided to make things as comfortable as possible.

Folding tables were erected, camp stretchers put together and a nice shady spot found, for the long pine case (originally a rifle case), which was filled with ice packed in sawdust, in this case was to be kept liquid nourishment and parts of our daily diet and it would be true to say that everyone thought of Dinty as a mastermind for having thought to bring some ice.

It took practically the whole of the afternoon to settle in, and that night we fished for about an hour, just long