Was reading 'Walking them up' by Ken Pearce

There was a reference to strange Western Australia State and at some stage Northern Territory Gun Laws that favoured the use of 45-70 over other large calibres.

I have no idea what this is reffering to?

Don't mean kick a bee's nest on #@$* Gun Law issues but can't imagine a law that would make people steer towards a particular cartridge in Australia

It was a requirement of low powered vs high powered or high velocity. Easy to get the old pumpkin rollers than magnum hotshots.

That's about the size of it. 'Low powered' was a definition formerly used in the NT AFAIK. Still is, in WA!

Basically, it's much easier to get 'low powered' arms put on your licence in WA, than 'high powered'. The applicable calibre list is in Schedule 2 to their Firearms Regs.

It consists of rimfires, pistol cartridges [up to .45ACP], and centrefires that were mostly originally black powder. E.g. .22 Hornet, .25/20, .44/40, .45/70, .450/577, and .577 Snider. And even:".450 Snider with 380 grain bullet and 55 grains of black powder"!

Extremely difficult, or impossible, to get modern big bores licensed in WA. They seem to reckon nobody there needs a .375H&H, for example.

Well thats stupid, I could never live in WA then

Gadge ,
Licensing a seriously powerful rifle in W.A. in not that difficult . Inconvenient and time consuming yes .
If you have a good record and can write a good letter explaining why you want the firearm eg. to hunt buff in the N.T. you should be o.k. . I got a 7mm WSM about 12 months ago no worries .