In order to apply for a firearm licence in NSW you must have a “Genuine Reason”. For many hunters, the easiest way to get a Genuine Reason is to have an R-Licence which not only meets the “Recreational Hunting / Vermin Control” genuine reason category but also allows the hunter to hunt in NSW state forest. 

In order to get an R-Licence a hunter must first be a member of an approved AHO (Australian Hunting Organisation) like The Australian Hunters Club. This is where we come in. 

The NSW genuine reason we offer via the club is through the R-Licence. Once you have joined our club you then submit to NSW DPI your membership certificate as evidence of this membership which allows you to start your R-Licence training and sit the test. 

Once you’ve completed the test you are issued your R-licence which you can then use as your genuine reason for owning a firearm in your firearm licence application or renewal. This is how it all works.

So the genuine reason in your firearm licence renewal/application is not with the club per se, it’s with the R-Licence that you can get because you are a member of the club.

Australian Hunters Club Approved Hunting Organisation (NSW) #13815

Step 1: R-Licence intent club registration

Prior to submitting a firearm licence application or renewal you must first have an active R-Licence. In order to get an R-Licence you must be a member of the Australian Hunters Club.

When seeking to use your membership with the Australian Hunters Club as the reference for your R-Licence application, eligible members must first complete the ‘genuine reason‘ application form on the Australian Hunters Club website. (Note you will need to be logged in to do this). Completion of this form registers your intent to use the club as your reference for your R-Licence application.

Note this page is only available for premium and platinum members. For monthly premium and platinum members this page is unlocked after 92 days, for annual members it’s available immediately after registration.

Step 3: Getting your R-Licence

Once you have completed the form on the club’s website you can no go to the DPI website and begin the process to get your R-Licence. This involves study material and then a test online.

You can learn more about the R-Licence and apply here. 

During the R-Licence application process when you are asked for infomation pertaining to AHO (Australian Hunting Organsation) or club which is your reference, you can cite The Australian Hunters Club (Approved Hunting Organisation #13815)

Step 4: Evidence of genuine reason for firearm application/renewal.

After completing the form above your R-Licence course completion certificate or physical R-Licence card in conjunction with your Australian Hunters Club membership certificate pdf become valid evidence for your genuine reason for owning a firearm.

You can now start your NSW firearm licence application here.

When you come to the section titled “Genuine Reason” it’s important that you select the following options (see screenshot below):

• Select “To shoot on rural land” as the reason you require a Firearm Licence.
• Select “Holder of a valid NSW Game Hunting Licence Issued by Department of Primary Industries” from the next dropdown box that will appear.
• Select the firearm categories you wish to apply for.
• Add your NSW Game hunting licence number (visible on your R-Licence card) that was issued to you after completion of the R-Licence Course.
• Set your R-Licence Expiry date (visible on your R-Licence card)
• Attach a picture of both the front and back of your R-Licence card.
  
  

In the event you are required to cite the name of the hunting organisation/club (AHO) for your “To shoot on rural land” genuine reason please cite ‘The Australian Hunters Club”. If the form requires the clubs Approved Hunting Organisation number use: 13815. Similarly if the form requires proof of your membership with the Australian Hunters Club you can attach your membership certificate (which was emailed to you as a pdf attachment the same day you signed up for membership). If you have lost your certificate you can download a copy from your account page, under the Subscriptions tab. Within your active subscription find the section titled ‘related orders’ and click on the “invoice” button associated with your latest order (this will either be monthly or annually depending on your subscription). Once clicked the download will automatically start for your certificate.

Note, each state has different requirements and processes when it comes to presenting evidence so be sure to read these requirements carefully. If your membership certificate is insufficient evidence for genuine reason please contact us. 

If your genuine reason for having a firearms licence changes and you want to swap it over to the “Recreational Hunting / Vermin Control” category, via the R-Licence, you must inform the Firearms Registry, by email to firearms@police.nsw.gov.au within 14 days by attaching your R-Licence and club membership certificate as proof of membership. If you are required to cite the clubs AHO number it is 13815.

See NSW Firearm Registry website for more information – https://portal.police.nsw.gov.au/s/article/Firearms-Licensing-Frequently-Asked-Questions#npc3

The Australia Hunters Club membership only offers genuine reason for category A, B firearms. This includes rifles and shotguns, it does not include handguns.

1. Attendance based club genuine reason – Some clubs offer genuine reason to its members that requires a certain number club meeting or event attendances each year in order for the genuine reason to remain valid. This is the type I believe you are referring to. If you fail to meet this requirement, you no longer have a valid genuine reason.
   
   
2. R-Licence based genuine reason – The other type of genuine reason (which is what The Australian Hunters Club offers) is genuine reason via a valid NSW R-License (or Restricted Licence). An R-License is a special license (separate from a firearms license) issued by NSW DPI which allows any hunter in Australia to hunt NSW state forest. If you don’t have an R-License you are restricted to hunting on private land in NSW. In order to get an R-Licence you first need to be a member of an approved club, like the Australian Hunters Club. The good news is that not only does an R-Licence allow you to hunt in state forest, it provides you with hunting public liability insurance when doing so, and can also be used as your genuine reason when filing a firearm license application or renewal.

The advantage of going with the R-Licence via The Australia Hunters Club is that you don’t have any other club requirements. You don’t need to attend any meetings or events, you just need to keep your R License active.

1. Members who have an active R-Licence acquired through membership with The Australian Hunters Club are covered with public liability insurance by NSW DPI Hunting when they hunt under standard recreational licence conditions in NSW.
2. The insurance covers bodily injury and/or property damage to third parties up to the value of $25 million.
   • on private land – when hunting any species listed in the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002.
   • on public land – when hunting under the terms of a NSW Restricted Game Hunting Licence (R-Licence) and written permission. Licence holders are covered by the policy while carrying out regulated hunting under the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002 and its Regulation 2022:
3. The insurance policy does not cover commercial hunting or hunting for reward (guided hunting). However, if a commercial or guide licence holder is hunting recreationally, without compensation, their activities are insured. It’s important for these licence holders to keep records that distinguish between their paid and private hunting activity for insurance purposes.
4. This insurance coverage does not extend outside of NSW.
5. Members can learn more about insurance available to R-Licence holders via the NSW DPI Hunting website.

Every standard General and Restricted game hunting NSW licence has a public liability insurance component.

You are covered for liabilities up to $25 million when you are hunting in NSW under the standard conditions of your licence.

An excess fee of $1,000 is payable with each claim on the insurance attached to your licence.

Yes. The public liability insurance cover has been extended to cover licence holders when hunting any species listed in the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002 on private land Australia wide.

On public land, yes – the insurance attached to standard NSW R-Licences covers hunting using firearms, blackpowder firearms, bows and dogs.

On private land, yes – when hunting any species listed in the Game and Feral Animal Control Act 2002, except native game birds as they must not be targeted with a bow.

Yes. Hunting ducks on private land is covered by the liability insurance as your NSW game hunting licence is a prerequisite for participation in the Native Game Bird Management Program.

We are hoping in the future to offer this service, however at the moment this is  not possible.

Yeah, of course you can still sign up! All the other benefits in the membership plans are not restricted by where you live. Go for it, we’d love to have you in the community.

When you sign up for a membership with Australia Hunters you gain instant access to a dashboard via the website were you can find product discounts, gain access to your product giveaways, guided hunt giveaways, course discounts, exclusive content and much much more.

Given all of members benefit information is online we figured it wasn’t beneficial to be responsible for creating more plastic in the world that’s eventually going to sit in landfill.

But hey, if you want you can make your own card?

At the time of writing this there is no physical club house for the Australia Hunters hunting club.

We exist in pockets in every state, with the community coming together in small organic events as well as larger state wide and national events.

As the membership base grows we might build a club house, or tree house. Who knows!

Our members directory is the best way for you to connect and contact other members. Through the directory you can easily create a profile and find other members based on their location, sex, interests, age, preferred species to hunt, experience, hunting style or whether or not they have access to private property.

Once you’ve found someone you want to connect with it’s easy to send them a message via the form on their profile. Profiles only show basic information so that members privacy and contact information is protected.

Access to the directory is available via all membership tiers.

Access to the members directory is restricted to members who have a member profile. Without an active members profile you will not be able to access the directory. You can create a profile here.

We love celebrating the victories our members achieve in the field. It’s for this reason that we have a members harvest and trophy register.

Through this register members can create records of their hunts, detailing their kills, harvests and trophies.

Not only does these records immortalize and celebrate our members achievements, but they are a useful reference for other members.

These records can be filtered and viewed by other members, and if the member agrees, listing can also contain contact forms allowing members to contact each other.

Entry into the monthly product giveaways are automatic. All elidable members are automatically added to the draw list.

Entry into the monthly hunting experience giveaways is a manual process. On each monthly hunting experience announcement post found via the members dashboard, members can find a form which allows them to enter all of the hunting experience giveaways for that year. This form needs to be complete every year as the experiences change.

The winners of each months giveaways is announced on the first week-day of month via the members news page as well as the Australian Hunters Club Instagram account, Facebook group and official Facebook page (so make sure you like and follow them).

The winners are also announced via the clubs monthly email newsletter and sent a confirmation email.

If you win a guided hunt in a state that you don’t reside in you can gift it to a friend, or just travel there yourself.

When you sign up for a membership with Australian Hunters you gain instant access to a dashboard via the website were you can find product discounts, product giveaways, guided hunt giveaways, course discounts, exclusive content and much much more.

To access the dashboard again after leaving the website you just need to log in to the website with the username and password you created and you’ll automatically be taken there.

Yes, you can cancel your membership at anytime.

To learn more about cancelations visit our terms and conditions page.

Yes both monthly and annual scheduled future payments are automatically processed through your nominated credit card.

There is no need to manually pay each month/year.

The only time you will need to manually enter payment information after signing up is in the event of a failed payment transaction (more then likely due to your credit card expiring). This information can be changed in your account page, under the subscriptions tab.

To cancel your membership simply request it in writing via the contact page and a member of our team will process you request.

Fear not! If you loose or forget your membership login password you can do the following.

• Click on this link to go to the lost my password page.
• Enter your username or the email address on file for that account.
• Wait happily (or as much as you can) as your new password is emailed to you.
• Once you get your new password, log in to your profile page and use the temporary password to set a new password to something you can remember.
• Then log in with that new password.

Each year our annual members gather is hosted in a different location, but it usually runs at the end of October. We also try and move the event around from state to state so all members can participate.

When you join the club a pdf copy of your membership certificate will automatically be sent to the email address you used during registration. If you can’t see it try checking your spam folder.

Alternatively you  can access your latest membership certificate via the My subscriptions tab on your Account page.

Firstly go to the Accounts Page. Then click on “Subscriptions”. Find your active subscriptions and click on it (you may have multiple subscriptions listed if you’ve upgraded or downgraded). 

Then under the section title ‘related orders’ click on the “invoice” button associated with your latest order (this will either be monthly or annually depending on your subscription). Once clicked the download will automatically start for your certificate.

You can find your members number in your account page of the website when you are logged in, or on your members certificate which was emailed to you when you signed up.

The best way to contact us to through the contact form. From there we can follow things up or call you if required.

We generally respond to enquires within 24 hours.

Yeah, we know 🙂 Contact us if we’ve missed something you think would be good to add to this FAQ.