Police have seized almost 1000 firearms and other weapons in raids on a gun dealership and a rural property in Bathurst, New South Wales, as police investigate a gun dealer over an alleged domestic violence incident.
The guns were seized on Friday as police executed a search warrant. It is believed police applied for the warrant because the 59-year-old firearm dealer was the subject of a domestic violence report on Thursday.
About 600 firearms were seized from his dealership while the rest were from a Peel property, near Bathurst, linked to the man.
The remaining 386 were found throughout the 100ha property.
“We will be alleging that several of the items including a machine gun and some semi-automatic weapons were located in a disused mine shaft on the property,’’ a police spokeswoman said.
Military personnel were called in to detonate a mortar found there.
More than 300 guns found on the property were unregistered and while police are checking the firearms from the dealership, there is no suggestion at this stage they are illegal.
The weapons seized included machine guns, semi-automatic shotguns, handguns, silencers, fireworks, ammunition, crossbows and butterfly knives.
The gun dealer had yet to be interviewed over the domestic violence allegation and was not in custody.