While travelling about, signs can be useful, interesting or amusing, or they can just visually pollute whatever I’m trying to look at.
My brother just returned from Svalbard, Norway and told me they have a bunch of signs that are a bit unusual. Surrounding Longyearbyen, the largest town, are signs telling you not to leave town on foot unless you are armed. Conversely, in town, the bank and some other businesses have signs on their doors telling you not to bring your guns inside. This got me pondering a few gun-related signs I’ve come across in my travels.
When driving across the city limits to enter Montpelier, the state capital of Vermont USA, I saw that I didn’t have to stop hunting, just ensure that I used buckshot only (which was nice, even though I wasn’t hunting). This greatly reduced the chances of lobbing a bullet into a pedestrian, or someone’s lounge room, if trying to shoot a deer on the footpath.
In the early 2000s, Australian soldiers flocked to Timor Leste, in what was known as the “Dili dash for cash”, and on a night out were known to hit the dance floor with their rifle slung over their shoulder. This resulted in a dress code sign in the foyer of Dili’s main hotel which largely addressed the rifle issue, and semi/concealed handguns were quietly ignored (like that carried by a soldier in recreational mode in Dili).
The Dargo Hotel in the Victorian high country is close to popular deer hunting areas. Enough hunters stay in the hotel accommodation to necessitate signs in the rooms with a plea from the management regarding the use of hotel towels for firearms maintenance.
Some signs I think are just common sense and are not required, but obviously others don’t see it that way. A number of such signs are in the gallery below. Enjoy, and please send pictures of your favourite signs to the Journal.
Check out our Aglets section – the ideal place to share a photo of your favourite signs.
Neale is a former defender of the nation with a natural inclination to avoid most people. He enjoys travel to random, hopefully sparsely populated, locations with interesting architecture, old trains and cemeteries. He is retired and lives near Newcastle in a large patch of vegetation.