The club dates from about the early 1980s and has
operated out of various locations.
The founding members were Graeme & Lorraine
McVitty, David Percy and in particular, our Life Members
Rob and Helen Fairweather. These pioneers started and
ran an archery club through some pretty tough times and
strong opposition to the idea of having an archery club
in Strathalbyn.
The club has had several names over the years including
the Strathalbyn District Archers and was originally
affiliated with the Australian Bowhunters Association.
Today we are officially Strathalbyn Target Archers
Incorporated trading as Great Southern Archers, and are
affiliated with Archery South Australia and Archery
Australia.
The late Ros Johns was probably the club’s first coach.
She lived at Milang in the late 1980's.
Another influential woman was Life Members Margaret
Jenkins (formerly Kuchel). Margaret ran a very
successful Australian Junior Archery Development (AJAD)
program for many years.
GSA is recognised on the International front. We were
given the recognition of being the best set up National
Field event for not only competing junior archers, but
for spectators to “actually watch” the event take place
from 17 different vantage points around the 2 day course
in 2002.
Member's Achievements
Club members have included many
national and international award winners.
Simon Fairweather - gold in the World Target
Championships in 1991 and the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Andrew Kuchel - 1996 World Junior Target Championships
in San Deigo, USA, finishing 3rd in the individual event
and taking team Gold with two fellow Australians. Andrew
also took Gold and set five records at the Trans Tasman
Cup event in New Zealand in the same year. After a break
from the sport Andrew returned in 2016 and represented
Australia at World Archery Cup in 2018 at Shanghai.
Kate Fairweather, Michael Ware and Megan Kuchel. All
Gold medalists on the International front - all from
"Strathalbyn Target Archers".
There are other Australian National Champions such as
Angus Barrie, Simon Tucker, Helen Hann, Candeece
Falland, Rupert Lindon, Krystal Hicks, Alistair Falland,
Lucas Weeks, Aaron Groffen, Angus Dinnison, Dan
Colville, Luke Haeusler, John Vogelsang and Graham
Kuchel.
Former club President Pat Coghlan was rated as World
No. 3 and was captain of the Australian Compound Archery
Team in 2008.
Sherry Gale has represented Australia on many
occasions.
Aaron Grubel was an Australian Junior Team
representative at the World Indoor Archery Championships
in 2007.
Michael Felix was a Team Gold Medalist in India at the
Commonwealth Cup.
Tristan Barrett competed in numerous Junior National
Archery Championships.
Former club President John Clark is Secretary General of the
World Crossbow Shooting Association and has competed in
numerous World Crossbow Championships and was a Senior
Gold Medalist in the Individual Target Match Play in
2011.
