The lovely, family story behind Primal Archery

Every couple remembers where they went on their first date.

For Luke and Cassie Thomas, it was the local Busselton archery park where Luke first taught Cassie how to shoot a bow and arrow.

“Ever tried archery?” was the simple question that started their romance.

“Growing up, I’ve always been playing with bows and shooting arrows,” Luke says.

As a child, Luke first discovered archery after finding his father’s bow in the shed.

His father would then also take him to the archery park to shoot together.

“When I asked Cassie out, I always remembered there being an archery park in the area but wasn’t sure if it had closed down… Thankfully not.” Luke recalls.

After their first date, they’d religiously visit the archery park every week and ... simply fell in love with the place.

“How cool would it be to own it someday?” they thought aloud to each other.

“I always wanted to ask the owner if he’d like to sell but felt maybe a bit rude or too shy,” recounts Luke.

By serendipity, 12 months later, there was a For Sale sign out the front of the archery park so they took it as their opportunity to finally approach the owner and make an offer.

At the time, being young and inexperienced in business, Cassie and Luke were nervous about their offer being knocked back.

However, after seeing their love and passion for the archery park, the former owner agreed to sell them the business knowing Cassie and Luke will do the place justice.

With that, Primal Archery was born and it has evolved from being the couple’s labour of love into a full family affair!

Visitors are greeted by Archer the Dog and, fun fact, Lincoln their son is nicknamed Link after the character from Legend of Zelda.

Isn’t it sweet being able to walk through and reminisce special moments from your first date?

“Unfortunately not! Over the years, it’s changed so much that you just wouldn’t recognise it from before.” laughs Cassie.

“After taking over, we made a lot of changes for Primal Archery to be more family-friendly so a lot of the old stuff either had to go or be freshened up” Luke explains.

“Nowadays, the only memories from our first date is seeing couples shooting for the first time just like we did many years ago!” says Luke.

From humble beginnings, Primal Archery now offers a 10-target archery course, as well as, a separate 5-target course to challenge long-distance sharpshooters!

To get the whole family involved... there’s Archery Tag which is like paintball and dodgeball mashed together without paint, bruises and pain!

Archery is fun and safe for children from as young as 6 years and up.

Primal Archery is open Wednesday to Monday (7 days during school holidays) and located at 11 Cookworthy Rd, Busselton which is 2.5 hours from Perth and well worth the trip!