HAVING a bow and arrow in hand is when Heywood archer Wendy Gallagher is most at home, which will be the case across the weekend as she takes on the Australian Bowhunting Association national championships.

Gallagher will be joined by another local archer, Phil Showler, with the pair travelling to the home of bowhunting in the country, Australian Bowhunting Association’s National Field Venue in New South Wales.

Gallagher is a member, and founder, of the local archery group Mount Clay Archers and has been a driving force for the sport since she turned up to town 20-odd years ago.

Archery might not be the first sport people try their hand at but for Gallagher she grew up with plenty of bow and arrows in the house as the number one sport in her family.

“I used to do archery all through my late teens, my whole family did it – we lived in Melbourne and would go out to the ranges or go on trips,” she said.

“It was something where the whole family would come along and we really loved it.

“It was something very different too; most people were playing basketball or footy and because we lived in the city we could only practice at a club – but we still competed quite a lot.

“Once I had the kids I got out of it but still had my equipment.”

Mount Clay Archers

When the keen archer turned up in Heywood in the early 2000s it didn’t take long for word to spread about her ability on the range.

“In 2002 I moved to Heywood – I was just sitting at home one day and had a knock on my door from Wayne Rantall. He said that he’d heard I used to do archery and wanted to start a club that was closer to home,” Gallagher said.

“There were other clubs around but you’d have to drive a bit to find them – I’d always wanted to get back into it and the kids were a bit older so I thought why not.”

The club officially began in 2004 with Gallagher at the helm alongside some other enthusiastic archers in the region.

Since its inception people have come and gone from the club, which is based at Heywood Sports Park, but Gallagher says they are still kicking around and open for anyone to have a go.

“It’s the kind of sport where people come and go from and it works that way,” she said.

“Most of the originals who started the club aren’t around anymore but new people come in and out.

“During COVID we took a hit, much like everyone else, but things are starting to pick up again and we’ve got more people coming in.

“It’s been 22 years since we started and we’re still going so I’m pretty happy with that.”

The club usually hosts a shoot day on the second and fourth Sunday each month.

“Anyone can come and have a go at it,” Gallagher said.

“It’s one of those things you don’t have to continue in it, you can just see what it’s about and if you enjoy it or not.

“We’ve had all different people come and try it out of all abilities and it’s great to see.”

Family friendly

While it’s not always a sport you would associate with being family friendly, Gallagher says it is just that with archery something everyone can get involved in.

“My kids got hooked when we started at the club, they’d love going out there but they started to slip away as life goes on,” she said.

“But it’s funny how things go full circle because I take my grandchildren out now and they have a great time.

“They just love it – they have a lovely time and it’s also a good chance for them to get out in nature.

“Some kids can start earlier than others and it depends a lot on the kid and their ability to listen when they’re out there and follow instructions but it’s great fun.”

Not only is it Gallagher’s immediate family that brings a sense of camaraderie to the sport, with her network growing since being involved locally and nationally.

“It’s a big community archery and you meet people from all over,” she said.

“There will be a few people from Victoria heading to the championships in New South Wales and some we haven’t caught up with for a while which will be great.

“After the championships I’m going on a bit of a trip around Australia and we’ll stop in at different ranges depending on where we end up and catch up with some of our friends who are involved in the sport.”

Not easy, but very rewarding

Archery is welcoming to anyone and everyone to try, but Gallagher says it is not an easy sport to master and is very technical the more involved you get.

“There is a lot to learn when it comes to archery, people can pick up the basics fairly quickly but to build up the skills beyond that it takes time,” she said.

“It’s like any sport in that sense, some are quicker than others and some are happy to just stick with the basics.

“A lot of hand-eye coordination goes into it; you need to be able to aim at your target, focus, remember all of the things required to get a shot off – and there is so much to remember when taking a shot.

“There are so many types of bows and some want to shoot recurve with no sights and others want to try compound with sights so all of that comes into it too.”

Gallagher, who has been in the sport since her teens, has moved through different types of competitive shooting.

She had mastered the compound in her earlier days and has now changed to longbow shooting for a bigger challenge which is what she will compete in across the weekend.

“I’m finally getting back to going to nationals, I haven’t been for a few years now so it’s exciting,” she said.

“I used to shoot compound and I used to be pretty good at that but I changed to longbow for a challenge and mastering that is really hard.

“Some days I’m getting really solid scores and other days not so much, sometimes you have a bad day and you’ve just got to work through it.

“Either way it’s going to be a lot of fun to get back up there and compete against some of the best archers in the country.”