Rgo: "I remember carrying a 303 from Bulli to Wollongong on a bus no case nothing ..."
I too remember carrying a .303 on a Number 8 tram along Toorak Road, Melbourne as a school cadet in the mid-1960s. However the adults who ran the show, i.e. society, had all been through WW II and either served or got used to seeing troops, Australian or US, carrying weapons around Melbourne. A bloke I know swears that he was detailed to take a Bren gun home on the bus prior to going on cadet camp at Pucka. I'm inclined to believe him - it was a different society back then when real adults were in charge and there were few 'bed-wetters'. We even had a .22 rifle range on the top of one building at school.
Jim