Military firearms in colonial Western Australia 
95 
Figure 24 The "W.A.A." ownership marks of the W.A. Artillery company of the Permanent Force which manned the 
Albany fortifications, 1893 - 1901. The mark is on the right side of the butt of a Martini-Enfield Mark I rifle, 
W.A. Pattern. (Photo R. Sinclair). 
units may also have been issued with rifles at this 
time, but as yet none have been noted. 
The brief period from 1895 through Federation to 
1903 saw the reforming of existing corps and the 
raising of new corps which took the W.A.D.F. into 
the Commonwealth. Corps of this era included the 
Pinjarra Mounted Infantry, Goldfields Battalion of 
Infantry, W.A. Mounted Infantry (W.A.M.I.) and 
the Boer War W.A.M.I. Contingents. It was a 
period of rapid expansion in the numbers of men 
and arms. This expansion, from 617 NCOs and 
men in 1895 to 2561 NCOs and men in 1900, 162 
naturally led to a huge increase in the demand for 
arms. 163 Additionally, there were 872 NCOs and 
men in the six W.A.M.I. Contingents to South 
Africa also requiring arms. The words of the Local 
Commandant of the time. Col. Chippindall, sum 
up the pressures of this phase in the life of the 
Defence Force. He wrote: 
"No separate Department exists for Pay, Stores, 
Supplies, Commissariat, Transport, Medical etc. etc., 
and (if one realises) that all details are carried out in 
one office, some idea of the work done can be arrived 
at". 164 
Because of the continuous raising and 
despatching of troops, the movements of arms 
between corps and the almost complete absence of 
records for this period, the arms and their marks 
are described now as a group rather than by issue 
to individual units. To maintain continuity the 
subject is discussed from 1895 - 1903. 
On 17th January 1893 the W.A. Government 
ordered 700 Martini-Metford Mark I Rifles, W.A. 
Pattern. The W.A. Pattern refers to the fact that 
these rifles were especially modified for W.A. by 
the inclusion of a butt-trap for the oil bottle and 
sighting for black powder .303 inch cartridges. This 
arm was the first of a line of W.A. Pattern Martini 
arms which fixed the Pattern 1888 sword bayonet 
instead of the socket bayonet previously utilized 
by the Martini-Henry rifles in service. 165 These 700 
rifles arrived in 1895 and issue began immediately, 
the newly established First Infantry Volunteer 
Regiment being armed first, with the York Infantry 
and the Perth Mounted Rifles also receiving their 
arms in that year. 166 Specimens of Mark Is 
examined confirm that these arms were stamped 
with a simplified ownership code, "W A over 
number" (see Figure 13). They were marked from 1 
- 700. In 1897 a further 200 Martini-Metford rifles 
were purchased from England. This time however, 
they were the Mark II type, unable to fix the 
Pattern 1888 sword bayonet, taking instead the 
Pattern 1887 sword bayonet, an entirely different 
bayonet which would have to be specially ordered. 
There is tentative evidence to suggest that these 
Mark IIs may have been ordered due to a lack of 
military knowledge on the part of the civilian 
purchasing agent in London. He may have just 
ordered "more" Martini-Metfords, without 
knowing there was a Mark II variation, a type 
different from the Mark I previously supplied. In 
