Collector gun range back on the table, but smaller this time

The criticism came from a local resident opposed to the shooting range, speaking at a council meeting last month.

The new application was submitted by Fiona Burns, the wife of the former chief executive of Australian Target Systems Paul Burns. Paul Burns' company withdrew plans to build a large rifle range outside the small town of Collector last year.

The company said it's not involved in the new bid despite the involvement of Mr Burns, now a board member of Australian Target Systems.

Mr Burns spoke at a council meet in favour of the new proposal, but a spokeswoman for Australian Target Systems said the company was not involved. She did not want to comment further.

The original project was much larger in scale and was set to cater for NSW Police's counter-terrorism training, but it faced opposition from residents mainly concerned about the noise intruding on their quiet rural lives.

Now, Mr Burns had told council he and his wife hoped to build "a world class facility that Queanbeyan will be proud of". The application said they were a family of "recreational shooters" who needed the range so their son could practice.

The Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council report on the application recommended the new project be approved.

But earlier in March, councillors deferred a vote until April, until they could hold a workshop.

Australian Target Systems' proposal to cater for NSW Police counter-terrorism training was withdrawn in July last year, which disappointed some residents because the council ultimately didn't get the chance to outright refuse the project.

Ms Burns' application seeks to build a private range on a much smaller portion of the land.

Local farmer John Reardon said the proponents had offered no assurances at a recent council meeting that it wouldn't end up being the "full blown national combat centre" originally proposed.

"When they withdrew it ... we all thought we could get back to normal life again," Mr Reardon said.

He said it would be devastating if the project went ahead with the noise making the area where Mr Reardon's family had lived for six generations near unliveable.

It proposed operating seven days a week between 10am and 5pm and three nights a week from 5pm to 10pm, to cater for 35 users at the southern end of a 1900 hectare plot of land off Collector Road.

It also includes plans for a 78 metre by 24 metre hangar.

The council's own documents referred to the application as ambiguous forcing it to take a conservative approach.

Speaking at a council meeting on March 13, Mr Burns told council he hoped to build "a world class facility that Queanbeyan will be proud of".

He said he had modified the original plans, which "removed the noise issue completely" for properties two kilometres from the range.

But Collector residents had previously described still being able to hear gunfire from the range some four kilometres away when Mr Burns was hosting a NSW police training event on the proposed site in 2017.

Mr Burns said several of the conditions council had put on the development "were not reasonable".

This included potentially limiting the operation to five days and three nights a week as well as following the recommendations of an independent noise consultant.

This consultant recommended annual noise testing and a website and 24-hour hotline for noise complaints.

Speaking against the project at the same council meeting was Defence public servant Greg Akhurst, whose own property borders the proposed site of the range.

He described the new proposal as a "badly camouflaged version" of the withdrawn project, which was then-described as an immediate need of Australian police and defence forces.

"Twelve months later, Australia is still as safe as it was and the company is still trading," Mr Akhurst said.

Local Tim Duck told the council not one shot had been fired for audio tests during the acoustic tests for the last application.

"All we have is speculation based on modelling," Mr Duck said.

Mr Duck said council shouldn't approve the new project unless it was clear it met the NSW's Environmental Protection Agency's noise requirements.

Even then, council notes on the current project that the agency's approval didn't mean it was not inaudible to the gun range's neighbours, rather "the noise satisfies what is deemed as an acceptable level".

The council report on the application said there 50 public submissions on the project.

While the council report recommended the application be granted conditional approval, the council voted to hold a workshop before putting the application to a vote on in April.