During a foray into the happy hunting ground of Special Collections , in the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library , James Cook University , Townsville , an unusual box , below, displaying the name of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, New Haven ,Connecticut, USA , immediately grabbed our attention.
Turns out the dovetail jointed box , probably dating from WWl , came from the North Queensland mining town of Ravenswood with a variety of documents related to early days of the town, including a gun club which ran from 1900 to 1916. Ravenswood is experiencing renewed expansion of goldmining resulting in the removal of some early buildings . The Winchester box was in a damaged state but repaired at a men's shed in Townsville .
The lever action Winchester was described as the rifle which won the West ,used in the Civil War , favoured by Buffalo Bill , featured in Cowboy and Indian movies . Colonel Custer and his men were victims of Winchester fire power as well as arrows .The Winchester Model 1892 sold 1,004,675 , popular in South Africa and Australasia .
In January 2006 the New Haven plant , where Winchester rifles and shotguns had been produced for 140 years ,was shut down .
