John Sutherland

Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

The sport of shooting was recognised in the City of Greater Shepparton Hall of Fame in 2017, with the induction of Commonwealth Games rifle shooter Barry Wood and Olympic pistol shooter Bruce Quick. Tonight we induct a man who was known around the world for his expertise as a trap shooter. John Sutherland rose from his humble beginnings as a mailman and creamery manager at Katandra to be lauded at the world headquarters of trap shooting at Monte Carlo.

Sutherland learned to shoot around the Katandra district as a boy and shot at his first competition in Shepparton during 1895 followed by a competition at Cosgrove. He soon won enough money to be able to buy a proper competition gun and this gun saw him rise to great heights as a trap shooter. He briefly went to Gippsland to manage a butter factory at a place called Calrossie near Yarram. There happened to be three men by the name of John working on the Calrossie Estate, there was long John, short John and to save confusion, John Sutherland was called Calrossie John. He used that name as his shooting name and from then on he was known as Calrossie. That name would be emblazoned on trophies throughout Australia and the world as he was the winner of 103 championships during his long career.

He won his first championship at Kerang in 1901 and his last trap shoot was in 1958 at the age of 80. His family in the Goulburn Valley would never know where John would turn up as he shot in all states and overseas. He won sixteen State titles in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia and an incredible amount of championships all over the country including the Goulburn Valley. John’s fame was spread around the world and in 1928 he was invited to undertake a world tour and shoot at the home of trap shooting at Monte Carlo. It was there that he created the world record of 128 birds straight in one shoot.

John won the aggregate for the season at Monte Carlo and went on to win championships in England, France and Italy. He was described by an International shooting critic as the best shooter on the planet. He was so appreciated by the shooting fraternity that he was contracted as a representative by cartridge manufacturers ICI. He spent 25 years with the company and naturally didn’t pay for his cartridges. John was a man with a great sense of humour and enjoyed the anonymity the name gave him. He travelled mostly by train and enjoyed the conversations with fellow travellers about shooting. He would tell them that he knew a chap called Jack Sutherland that could shoot as well as Calrossie. A lengthy argument often followed those discussions.

He was a modest champion who during his 50 years of worldwide success described his greatest shooting moment was when he was a small boy at Katandra when he shot his first running hare. John’s characteristic of steady hand, cool nerve and accurate eye made him Australia’s master shot. He was described as a legend in his own lifetime.

He was honoured by the Australian National Clay Target Association and inducted into the Australian Trap Shooters Hall of Fame based in Wagga in 2011.

John died in 1969 at the age of 89 years and will forever be noted as one of the World’s greatest trap shooters. The City of Greater Shepparton is proud to recognise John Sutherland, better known as Calrossie as a sporting champion inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame.