History | Hītori

The Auckland Archery Club was established in the 1860s, in grounds adjacent to Grafton Road and Stanley Street that eventually became part of the Auckland Domain. They were active from the early 1860’s and shot near the Auckland Bowling Club for many years.

By the mid-1870s, there was increasing competition for use of public land by sporting organisations, and archery was viewed as too dangerous to be a part of regular, mixed sporting activities. In 1874 Auckland Archery lost the use of the grounds at Government House.

Difficulties in finding space for archery continued for a couple of decades, while archery itself gradually fell out of fashion. The original Auckland Archery club was finally dissolved in 1888.

Sid Mitchener took up archery during his war years as the Armed Forces practiced archery in order to keep up their marksmanship but save on ammunition. He organised a lease for the Club at One Tree Hill, and built the clubhouse in 1946.

The clubhouse was wired and watered in the 1950’s, led by Merlin Stewart, the secretary of the club at the time.

An addition was built in the 1960s to allow members to shoot a full indoor round of 20 yards (18 metres today).

The original targets (packed straw wheels on easels) were replaced with standing targets packed with pinex.

A new class of archery was introduced in the 1980s with the introduction of the more powerful compound bows (with cam wheels at the end of the limbs).

Auckland club member Andrew Lindsay Jr represented NZ in the Atlanta Olympics in the USA in 1996, finishing in 33rd place.

Some of our club members achieved world records and medals at the World Championships.

Our standing targets were replaced with modern movable targets with high-tech foam and allow greater flexibility for our archers.

Our club has been host to many club and national competitions, community events, corporate shoots and World Masters Games, and we hope to continue doing this for many years to come.