The former Commonwealth Government Rifle Range in Canadian was closed and sold off in 2002, after having operated on the site since the 1860s on record, and perhaps for 20 years prior to that according to local histories.

The 38-hectare site was sold by the Department of Defence to local businessman Noel Dobbyn after it closed, and has changed hands several times. It now comes up for sale by expressions of interest through Colliers International.

The land first operated as The Canadian Rifle Range in 1860, but there are prizes handed out by the Ballarat East Rifle Club in 1842 which may have been won on the site, according to club members. At any rate, by 1862 the Rifle Rangers militia were using the land to train on, and the Army took control of the range at Federation, continuing its use through the Boer, First and Second World Wars.

Long-term Friends of Canadian Corridor and Woowookarung member Jeff Rootes (pictured) says that history has left the site heavily contaminated with lead from decades of firearms being discharged. But it is also a site of historic significance to the City of Ballarat.

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"In the First World War, the troop trains used to go out the Canadian railway station, and they bivouacked there," Mr Rootes says.

"There's actually trenches in the rifle range where they practised trench warfare. Hand grenades were manufactured at the Ronaldson Tippett factory in town and tested out there."

The FOCC says the range contains complete short and long range butts, sheds, shelters and target machinery, and is 'arguably Victoria's finest colonial and imperial rifle range' extant.

Mr Rootes says the two parcels of land on offer are vastly different. A smaller parcel of industrial land to the west is suitable for development, he says, but the larger block has environmental and developmental restrictions.

There have been negotiations in the past to incorporate the range into the wider Woowookarung Regional Park, with the FOCC arguing there is significant koala habitat, healthy forest and understorey, rare grassy valley forest areas, Yarra gums and rare Australian anchor plants growing on the land.

He says previous attempts to have the land rezoned for housing by developers were rejected 'for every reason under the sun.'

"Contamination, bushfire, lack of roads, lack of facilities, vegetation - you name it, it was knocked back for it," he says.

"Then in 2018 we got a bit interested in it for some reason. We visited it and looked over it, and the city at that stage was doing the Ballarat East township plan. They asked us to do a community economic case for the rifle range. In other words, where would it fit from a community perspective. And so we started that process. And that's where we came up with Imagine the Rifle Range.

"We worked out that you can actually split the rifle range - this is the business proposal that still sits on the table - it is possible to carve off the west end for housing. The east end, which is where all problems are, would either become a single owner, because it's rural conservation zone. So you put one house on it, and there's one house on it now. You can't split a rural conservation zone under 40 hectares. And it's 38."

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