My high school in suburban Sydney had a miniature rifle range down the back of the school oval, behind the tennis courts. It was set up for 25 yards smallbore.
We also had a school cadet corps, and a school armoury with .303 SMLEs and Brens. On cadet camps we would also shoot SLRs (L1A1), and we'd have bivouacs to which we took our .303s. This was commonplace, as every school had cadets.
As well, I would take the train, or sometimes hitchhike, to go to the range with my rifle to shoot in competition, from when I was about 14, and of course did a lot of hunting on the family farm and those of the neighbours as a kid, from the age of 10. No-one ever turned a hair at this, and getting your first rifle was a bit of a rite of passage, at least in the country areas.
Back then there was no firearms registration, other than for pistols, and you didn't need a licence as long as you were hunting on private land or shooting as a member of a rifle club. Clubs were administered under the Defence Act, a Federal law which trumped state regulation in relation to firearms, and we'd even get ammunition subsidised by the Federal Government for use in competition.
