How many Aussie Pyros are there?

[Yankie]

If this topic is in the wrong spot just delete it or move it somewhere else...

 

I have been curious as to how many Aussies are truly into pyro, not just messing around with smoke bombs and crackers.

 

if every Australian on this forum can reply to this and also if they know others that aren't APC members.

 

My guess is that there aren't many, but im open for surprises.

[Frozentech]

Well I am not Aussie, but I do know of a few pyros from down under. Alan Yates comes to mind.

[Gunzway]

Yep, I would be one.

I would say there might be about ten on this forum. Probably more but I am kind of estimating the active ones.

[DIYMark]

Im an aussie. However I live in a suburan area so I cant do anything too loud. Ive made a few R Candy rockets (25mm ID 140mm long - +15Kg Thrust Accoriding to a Calc) but they were launched in the bush

 

Also I make smaller rockets, 12mm ID (Sugar and BP) as well as a few BP 6mm and 8mm ID ones (there tiny but fun!). Havent made much shells, just a 1 inch aerial and a 1.5 inch one for a rocket.

[_Po_]

I used to be, but had to stop due to legal complications about 18 months ago. I haven't been here in a few months and very rarely visit.

 

Another Aussie who quit was a guy called Blindreeper. We did some pyro together a few times (we live about 260km apart) but shortly after that he stopped and offered me all his stuff (for a price). He made pretty good toasted sandwiches.

 

There are quite a few of us around, but not many get too serious about it.

 

I'm still thinking about it as a career.

[WarezWally]

I used to be, decided it wasn't worth the legal risk anymore.

[mike_au]

I'm getting there slowly, I've made a few aerial shells (with varying levels of success) and I'm interested in getting more serious about it. Just need time and money :/

 

I saw another west aussie on pyroguide the other day.

 

WarezWally: did you actually have a run in with the law? or was it just a "what if..." thing

[Yankie]

Yeah _Po_ and WW if you wouldn't mind sharing with us what happened so that others can try and avoid a similar situation.

Does anyone know much about getting a lisence to make fireworks in Aus? Is there any legal way to do what we are doing?

 

A few months back a New Zealand company offered me a training course in setting up shows, it was a bit costly ($700 incl. air fair) and because I am only 15 I wasn't eligable for the certificate, you must be 17, i decided not to go. However even with this certificate I beleive that it only allows you to set up proffesional shows, not actually make your own fireworks.

[rocket]

I be one too though I'm moving more into the professional side off things now, hope to be licensed soonish. I still make my own things every now and then.

[WarezWally]

WarezWally: did you actually have a run in with the law? or was it just a "what if..." thing

No, A while ago I got the chance to get a lawyers opinion and he shat a brick when I told him what I was doing. I didn't take on his advise at the time but its always been in the back of my mind. In the end I decided to call it a day.

 

Although if things look up and I move a bit further west to somewhere remote I will pick it up. Nobody to potentially piss off but yourself.

[_Po_]

Avoiding my situation shouldn't be too hard, hahaha. Really bad luck more than anything.

 

Story time.

 

I used to go out of town to a friend's place most weekends to play pyro. They owned a lot of land in the middle of nowhere so it was good. I'd spend the week making things (rolling stars, making shells, stuff like that) and take it all to his place each weekend. After a few weeks of this I decided to leave most of the necessities there rather than driving them 40 minutes each way once a week.

 

The first week I decided to leave everything there, my friend rang me up on Tuesday night and told me something bad happened. The idiot made me guess and asked me what the worst thing to happen would be. I thought he was joking and suggested there was a fire and his house burnt down. Nope.

 

His father had been growing weed (I didn't know about that) and they raided the place. Apart from the drugs my friend had a few unregistered ex-military guns and my pyro stuff was there (including HE stuff). The thing I was really pissed off about were the stars. They took everything including more than 20kg of rolled stars, all different compositions, hundreds of hours work.

 

I got the phone call right when we sat down to eat. My parents could tell something was wrong by my reaction and they freaked out a bit without knowing what was wrong. We decided to go out there and talk to him and his parents about what to do.

 

So they did the raid and I wasn't in the picture yet. My friend offered to take the blame for everything but I wouldn't let him do that. He said they wanted a meeting in about 4 days time and we decided I should go as well. Turned out it was a dodgey road-side meeting on the highway in the middle of nowhere.

 

So 4 days of no sleeping or eating and we went to this "interview". I intrduced myself as the owner of the pyro equipment. Straight away he wanted to know where I got all the fireworks from. He assumed I'd bought them from a commercial supplier. I told him I made everything but he didn't believe me. He asked about all the little black balls and I explained that they were stars and what they did and what specific things made specific effects and the process of making them starting with a mustard seed and a spray bottle (my mum actually joined in with explaining that haha). He finally understood I wasn't a stupid kid mucking around with dangerous bombs and I knew very well what I was doing. Once the realisation hit he let go and didn't care about me any more. Dismissed me as harmless and innocent. And he moved to my friend to talk about the guns.

 

He wanted to make a deal with us to make everything go away by us naming a drug dealer or something, but we're not into that. I haven't touched anything but alcohol in my life and we didn't know anything to tell them, so that fucked his plan a bit and put us in an very difficult position.

 

With the new terrorism laws they have to prosecute no matter what when they find what they found (total of 30kg+ of stars, BP, burst, fuse, chemicals and a 25kg bag of potassium nitrate). He knew we were just good kids in the bush having fun and wanted to keep our records clean (luckily he was a nice cop). I won't repeat what he said but we got out of it without any problems.

 

By the end of the interview we were on fairly good terms (apart from the drug growing fuckshit who was the cause of this trouble and had been a goodie goodie sucking up to him all this time). At the end of it all my dad said "so can he get any of his stuff back?" The cop shook his head and said "sorry mate".

 

I haven't touched pyro since. I doubt anyone else will have a problem similar to what mine was hahaha. I was 17 at the time.

[WarezWally]

I wouldn't have said a word to any cop about it personally.

[Gunzway]

Yeah, lately I have been paranoid. Whenever I hear a siren or anything I like panic and check that they aren't coming here (Funny I know..) . I also don't like it when helicopters are near my house.

I couldn't imagine storing 20kg of stars... I try not to store anything pre-made.

 

As far as I know you can't obtain a license in Australia to manufacture fireworks. I know you can get a pyrotechnic license to buy fireworks and do display shows but it needs to be your occupation, not a hobby. You need to do a certain amount of shows each year or something

 

I think you would need the license to "Manufacture High Explosives" but even with that they won't let you make fireworks. (Entertainment = Not a good enough reason to make such things according to the law).

 

This is just from my knowledge and what I have read. The best thing you could do is get your pyrotechnic license to buy commercial items. You could also make them but just make sure they look pretty (Wrapping etc..)

I don't think police or law enforcers could identify what is commercial or not, or can be screwed to find out. Or go to a country which will allow you to make fireworks.

[WarezWally]

You can get mfg permits but you need to be a company and they are not something anybody can get.

[Gunzway]

Perhaps someone can help me out here.

After I have completed my "goals" here. What American State is the best for pyrotechnics? (In terms of getting a BATF license and other stuff.. You know what I mean). I would not mind later in life to go to a country which does not care about my hobby.

[DIYMark]

Im in the same boat - cant do sh!t here in Aus.

 

After a loud CATO (12mm ID Rocket that sounded like nuke went off - the casing split straight in half. Guess I under estimated "Granulated Coffee Grinder Powder" LOL). So now I'm making tiny Rockets like 8mm ID. And even after this afternoon they are still too big! The rocket is kinda optimized with proper De Lavel nozzles (machined some tooling) and the burst charge it too loud (neighbors dogs shit them selves) plus the litte buggers are pretty loud as they go up.

 

SO I made some 6mm ID tooling LOL These rockets are TINY. I make them 30mm long and 6mm ID. They can carry themselves, a piece of spaghetti (stabilizer stick ) and a few cut stars up to +20meters! There good fun and addictive. This gives me an idea - see how small I can my a rocket lol!

 

Back to the point, Australian laws are too tight - if you're going to potentially have fun, or maybe the tinyest bit MAY hurt urself if YOU should happen to screw up, thens its illegal. Like some one mentioned in a thread before (sry cant remember) people should be let to do what they want, drugs, pyro whatever - as long as THEY are and stay responsible for their actions.

[TheSidewinder]

Perhaps someone can help me out here.

After I have completed my "goals" here. What American State is the best for pyrotechnics? (In terms of getting a BATF license and other stuff.. You know what I mean). I would not mind later in life to go to a country which does not care about my hobby.

Wisconsin, the State just east of me, is very pyro-friendly. We have a few members that live there. The WPAG is based there, of course. I wish my State was pyro-friendly, but it's not.

 

There are several other States that are quite pyro-friendly, too.

[WarezWally]

Try to find a state that is also gun friendly, I'm fairly sure places which allow concealed / open carry have the lowest crime rates.

 

You would have to be fucking insane to break into someones house when 95% of the local population owns firearms.

 

Whether or not you will still have these freedoms in 20 odd years has yet to be seen.

[MilkyJoe]

West aussie here...and NOT proud of it when it comes to fireworks =P this place sucks!!!

 

But I guess the west is a bit less populated so that is good.

[Swede]

Let me ask a question of you guys... Australia and the U.S. have different laws, but the one thing that any sane government cannot restrict totally is research. Pyrotechnics, explosives, and propellants technology are not stagnant, in the sense that there will always be new/better comps and compounds to be discovered. Governments tend to view true research in a better light than either dealer or manufacturer, mainly because you are working with much smaller quantities of materials. And that actually fits most of us perfectly, we are not filling warehouses with stuff, just executing small batches.

 

Is there any way to become legal and licensed to research energetic materials in Oz? Obviously if you are 16 and have no degree in chemistry, they'll probably laugh in your face, but let's assume you are 24 or older, clean record, preferably a degreed chemist, and no kidding want to do research. Somewhere in your country, there are guys in lab coats working with energetic materials. And part of that process is test and evaluation!

 

I am not advocating a wink-wink skirting of the law, but doing actual research. Possible?

[WarezWally]

I'm sure its possible to do legally, there just inst much published information about how to go about it. All of that is buried deep in legislation.

 

On a side note, I once stumbled across some defense department documents talking about energetics and their current research into experimental compounds. I cant find them now, I guess someone forgot to set permissions of a folder or two.

[WarezWally]

I found a few diffrent one, these are tagged for public rls, cant find the original ones though.

 

http://dspace.dsto.defence.gov.au/dspace/b...N-0440%20PR.pdf

http://dspace.dsto.defence.gov.au/dspace/b...R-1542%20PR.pdf

http://dspace.dsto.defence.gov.au/dspace/b...R-1000%20PR.pdf

[nick2354]

Im South Aussie (growers state) and not paranoid at all about getting caught. I would like to think the Police have something better to do than looking for people making fireworks.

 

How about imprisoning the gang of 49? (If your not from Adelaide you wont understand)

[Gunzway]

Yeah, To be honest you shouldn't be too worried.

A month ago I was at this festival and people were setting fireworks off all around the area. Police were at the festival and they couldn't give a crap. (Mind you that it wasnt professionals doing it, it was clearly little groups of teenagers doing it)

The only thing you should be worried about is your neighbors. As long as your good friends with them, they won't really care. It's the loud bangs and whistle rockets at 2am which makes them angry.

 

As nick said, the police over here doesn't look around for fireworks. They would have more important stuff to do. But if they do see some and they can be bothered to get out of their car and walk over that's when you have trouble.

[nick2354]

Gunzaway are you from Adelaide?