Victorian Historical Combat Academy 2.69

Established in 2016, the Victorian Historical Combat Academy (VHCA) is a Melbourne-based Historical European Martial Arts School teaching students 19th Century sabre, bayonet, la canne and other Victorian-era fighting styles in a safe and friendly environment.

The school uses modern equipment and teaching methods to deliver a curriculum based on primary historical sources from the 19th century. We are not a re-enactment or live-roleplaying group. Rather, we are a modern martial art based on real historical European sources, including:

The Art of the Dueling Sabre, a modern English translation of an 1872 Italian military fencing manual;
Captain Alfred Hutton’s 1889 manual Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre;
The Manual of Bayonet Exercise: Prepared for the Use of the Army of the United States (1862) by George B. McClellan, Commander-in-Chief of the US Army;
Self Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies, written in the 1870s by Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery;
Theory of learning la canne in 25 lessons, published in 1843 by Louis AV Leboucher of Rouen.
Senior instructor of the VHCA is Shannon Walker, who has been studying Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) since 2009.

The Academy trains in the School Hall at the Moorabbin Primary School on Worthing Road in Moorabbin and meets from 7pm to 10pm Wednesday evenings.