A Stock Pigeon (Columba livia), the preferred target of sporting shooters, so likely kept and bred by Gunning devotees of this popular amusement. If so, probably the unwitting carriers and victims themselves of a deadly poison. Photo Wikipedia. Perils Facing the Late Colonial Gunning Gourmet In March 1880 there was scarcely a single pigeon to be found around Gunning. We know this because a paucity of pigeons forced leading citizen and sporting event impresario, Mr W Grovenor, to initiate the district’s historic inaugural magpie shooting sweep stake tournament then. Two earlier posts "Gunning's First Ever Magpie Shooting Contest a Banging Success" and "Grovenor Street Gunning - A New Front in the History Wars" tells you more than enough about this. Why were pigeons in such short supply? The following piece of contemporary investigative journalism sheds new light on this question. Goulburn Herald and Chronicle 7 April 1879: Signal and Pro...
Upper Lachlan Shire, Southern Tablelands, New South Wales