Australian gun laws, in short:
Shooters must satisfy authorities that they are fit and proper persons (ie no criminal record, mental health issues etc) eligible to hold a firearms licence for the purposes of hunting, target shooting or primary production, and verifiable documentation of those reasons eg game licence, club membership, proof of ownership or access to hunting land) is needed. Self defence is not a recognised reason to hold a firearm.
Firearms themselves are registered, and each individual acquisition must be approved and transactions recorded with dealers who pass the information on to police, who maintain the registry and licensing functions. Firearms are categorised A, B, C, D, E or H:
A - single, bolt, lever etc rimfire and lever, bolt, double etc shotgun
B - bolt, lever, single, pump etc centrefire rifle
C - Self loading rimfire and self loading or pump shotgun
D - self loading centrefire
E - automatic rifles, rocket launchers etc
H - handguns
In practise A&B are easy enough to get; C is restricted pretty much to primary producers. D is professional shooters only. E is virtually no one - even collectors, if they have them, must have E permanently deactivated; many serious collectors will sidestep this by holding a dealer's licence. H requires club memberships, and H may not be used anywhere other than approved ranges.
Firearms must be locked away in fixed and secure storage, and ammunition locked away separately.
There are some slight anomalies and exemptions in that classification system: genuine muzzle-loading antiques or pre 1900 breech loaders for which commercial ammunition is no longer available are exempt from licensing and registration; however the way the definitions are written makes a spud/orange gun (a capped length of PVC pipe with a touch hole or piezo lighter, down which a flammable spray (hairspray, fly spray etc) and a spud or orange is stuffed) is classed as Cat E.
Access to hunting is relatively cheap and easy: several states still have duck and quail seasons for the cost of a game licence, public land access exists in several states, many landholders are happy to allow free access to hunters for vermin such as rabbits, pigs and foxes, as well as game species.
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