An Unusual Find

Bushrangers have been a recent obsession with my seven-year-old and he was thrilled to learn that the Central West is steeped in history, when it comes to Australian outlaws.

So, of course, we found ourselves in Eugowra and stopped by the top little Eugowra Historical Museum and Bushranger Centre.

The museum boasts an interesting, eclectic collection of objects from bushranger firearms, to old farming equipment and displays of home furnishings and bric-a-brac.

I was somewhat surprised to see a pair of British cavalry lances alongside another unusual object. Around five feet long, padded at one end, with a small loop at the other, the device is a bayonet training stick. An instructor would throw “points” or thrusts with the padded end for the recruit to parry, while the ring on the rear end was held up as a target to thrust a bayonet through.

As well as training soldiers for war, from the late 19th Century through to the Second World War, bayonet fencing was a widely practiced military sport - even here in Australia. Competitions would pit bayoneteers against one another using dummy rifles with a retractable “blade,” they would even be matched against sabres, both on foot and mounted, and even against mounted lancers.

Olympic Fencing today includes the three weapons - foil, epee and sabre - but a century ago it was common to see a tournament billing of foil, sabre and bayonet.