Records of the Western Australian Museum 17: 73-116 (1995). 
Military firearms in colonial Western Australia: their issue and marking 
G.B. Trotter 
32 Stratford Street, East Fremantle, Western Australia 6158 
Abstract - The types, quantities and dates of issue of military firearms to the 
Imperial garrison, the Enrolled Pensioner Force, the Volunteer Force, the 
Permanent Force and the Cadet Force between 1829 -1903 are examined and 
discussed. The markings of these arms, where known, are described and 
discussed. The types, quantities and marking of Western Australian military 
arms in the early Commonwealth period are also briefly canvassed. 
INTRODUCTION 
The types, quantities and dates of issue of 
military arms in Colonial Western Australia have 
been of interest to arms researchers for many 
years. Little was known until the pioneering work 
The Volunteer Movement in Western Australia 1861 - 
1903 was written by George Wieck in the 1960s. 
Wieck's chronology on the formation and 
disbandment of the various volunteer corps 
between 1861 and 1903 has been the standard 
reference on the subject. His work has since been 
expanded upon by later writers, notably James 
Grant, but like Wieck, the focus has remained on 
personnel, arms being relegated to an incidental 
status. Broomhall in his valuable reference The 
Veterans includes more information on the Enrolled 
Pensioners arms, but again the focus is on the men, 
arms being secondary. 
This paper follows the Wieck chronology. The 
author has checked references to arms given in 
these and other works and has included additional 
archival material discovered at this time and 
during earlier research on The Martini-Enfield Rifle 
in Western Australia. The aim has been to present a 
chronological description of the arms issued to the 
Western Australian military. Some discrepancies 
have arisen regarding the types of arms and their 
dates of issue as stated in the Wieck reference 
compared with data presented in this research. 
Wieck gives 1883 as the date of issue of the Snider- 
Enfield rifle in Western Australia. This researcher 
found no reference to this date in the archives, 
instead 1870 was found to be unequivocally the 
date of issue of the Snider-Enfields to the 
Pensioners and 1877 the date of issue of the Sniders 
to the Volunteers. Chris Halls, in his book Guns in 
Australia quotes the types of arms on issue here, 
notably the Snider-Enfield two band Artillery 
Carbine (1880s), and the Martini-Enfield Artillery 
Carbine (1898) for the Naval Artillery Volunteers. 
He also writes that the Martini-Enfield Artillery 
Carbine Mark I was issued in 1900 to the Fremantle 
Artillery Volunteers. Again, no archival record on 
the issue of these arms was found. It is however 
entirely possible that archival sources were found 
by these writers, but as the sources were not given 
they could not be referred to at this time. Similarly, 
some records of arms issues located for this paper 
are not referred to by previous writers. It is 
possible that arms of the types mentioned were 
indeed issued on the dates stated by Wieck and 
others and due reference is made to them, but until 
they can be verified they are included for 
comparison and comment only. Some volunteer 
corps such as the Sussex and Swan Volunteer Rifles 
described in Grant are omitted here due to their 
never becoming properly active. The various 
mounted detachments of the volunteer corps 
which became the W.A. Mounted Infantry in 1900 
are also omitted due to the lack of records 
concerning them. Because the local W.A.M.I. and 
the Boer War W.A.M.I. detachments used identical 
arms they are treated as one entity. It was also 
intended to give a complete account of the marking 
of volunteer arms but, as will be seen from the text 
certain sections of the arms marking procedure 
remain uncertain, notably, some of the Martini- 
Henrys of the rifle corps and the arms of some of 
the mounted and artillery corps. What has been 
presented however greatly clarifies this subject. 
Note: Abbreviations which may be found in the 
text: E.P.F. = Enrolled Pensioner Force, W.A.l.B. = 
W.A. Infantry Brigade, S.M.L.E. = Short Magazine 
Lee-Enfield, M L-E = Magazine Lee-Enfield, M.M. 
= Martini-Metford, M-E = Martini-Enfield, Mk = 
Mark, B.L. = Breech loading, M.L. = Muzzle 
loading. The initials of the various corps are used 
frequently in the text but always in context with 
the corps under immediate discussion and thus 
will cause no confusion. 
Note also that with the exception of the Deane, 
Adams revolver-carbine and the W.A. Pattern 
Martini-Enfields, only the issue and ownership 
marks of the various firearms under discussion are 
