Members of the local pigeon racing community from the Amalgamated Melville Homing Club, of which there are many members from the Cities of Canning and Gosnells, will be awarding their club champion this coming Sunday, March 2 at the Italian Forchetta Restaurant in Canning Vale.
Michael Clark of Jandakot will be announced club champion, who came in second for the entire State, an outstanding achievement given there are over 200 competitive flyers in Western Australia.
“The birds need to be trained like an athlete,” said Club publicity officer Robert Sheehy, who himself was Club Champion in 2023 and won the Young Bird Derby in 2024, a state-wide competition.
“They need to be fed considerable carbohydrates to give them the energy they need to cover long distances.”
In terms of the bird training process, the pigeons are first taught to fly at home around their lot, then gradually the distances are extended to 5km, 50km, 100km and more. The racing season runs from May to September, culminating in about a 1000km race from Lancelin right up to Exmouth.
“During the season we are racing every weekend, where the birds are gradually covering longer and longer distances,” Mr Sheehy said.
It is this skill of the homing pigeons that gave them a formidable reputation in the second world war.
“The Australian army used pigeons for communication and they saved hundreds of lives,” Mr Sheehy said.
“Two of our pigeons were awarded the prestigious Dicken Medal, which is equal to the Victoria Cross. When our soldiers were surrounded by the Japanese with no communication, the soldiers let the pigeons go to get reinforcements and saved all of them.”
The history of the Amalgamated Melville Homing Club dates back to 1935, with the first bird races from Kalgoorlie to Perth. The competitive club has topped the federal competition 18 times in the past 20 years.
