A RIVERLAND gel blaster field will soon reopen more than seven months after it was forced to close by changes to the state’s firearm legislation.
Chris Mapley, who runs the Riverland Mobile Skirmish Field at the Loveday 4x4 Adventure Park, said after nine months and about $14,000 he managed to obtain a business firearms licence.
“I couldn’t make any money over this period of time and it has just been so mentally draining,” he said.
“Now that I have my paperwork, I can finally start doing things again and getting things in order to start back up.
“When I got the email, I went down the police station and got 60 acquisitions to purchase firearms, and it took me three hours on Friday to fill those out.
“They will give me a serial number for each blaster that I have to engrave onto the blaster, and the police will come out to check that the numbers match the paperwork, and I also have to pay for the registration, which is $40 each, so will cost me roughly $3000.”
Mr Mapley said he was relieved to be done with the application process.
“It was devastating when the legislation first came in – it was like they had taken everything away from me,” he said.
“I couldn’t make any money, I couldn’t sell the blasters, and I had to pay all this money to get the licences and security cameras and a safe.
“When I got the email to say the paperwork had gone through I was shaking – when it started to sink in it made it feel like all this crap was worth it.”
Mr Mapley said he had been forced to make some changes to his business during the application process.
“Originally where I had the field was crown land, which they told me was only for grazing cattle, so I had to pull everything down, move it 100m and then it was fine,” he said.
“You wouldn’t find out things like that on the day that you sent the information either – it would take them a week to get back to you.
“It was torture, but I think now that I’ve got through that bit I think it should be fairly easy.”
Because gel blasters are now considered firearms, Mr Mapley said people who have previous gun-related or domestic violence offences are no longer permitted to play.
Mr Mapley said he was confident business would pick up quickly once the field reopens.
“I’m pretty sure people will come back, because about 80 per cent of my clientele beforehand were tourists into the state or area,” he said.
“Now that all this is pretty much sorted, the business is really going to take off I think.”
Berri Barmera Council and Rural Business Support are also working with Mr Mapley in developing a business and marketing plan to revive the business.