Quite frankly I don’t see flashlights being marketed a hell of a lot in Australia, and a Ray’s Outdoors catalogue prompted this question.
I saw a ‘210 lumen LED lenser’ being sold for $70 and started to wonder to myself, do any Australian retailers offer any reasonable prices? Or must I buy them online.
I haven’t checked out Bunnings in a while, but last time I went i remember seeing a ‘rechargeable energizer led spotlight’ which was pretty dim.
If anyone knows of any australia retailers selling flashlights please share them.
You really need to find a specialist store, and there aren’t many around. For example, if you lived in Sydney you’d want to drop in to Joint Pacific Trading, who stock everything from Fenix to Surefire. You can order online too. Postage is reasonable, and customer service is decent. You can even pick up a bargain or two.
I don’t think you’re going to find any retailers who stock the sort of budget lights we all love around here though.
http://www.cooltorches.com
http://fusiongear.com.au
http://beaustralasia.com
http://www.torchworld.com.au
http://www.extremetorches.com.au
http://www.outbacklighting.com.au
Not sure how many of those, if any, have a store front somewhere.
Bunnings has LED Maglites now, under $40 and a few other less, most overpriced cheapies. The Arlec 3xAA Watchman is not bad, $18 or so and throws pretty well. Nice size for camping.
Jaycar probably has the best range, but once again overpriced for what you get. I got my first good LED from Jaycar a few years ago. This Cree X-Glow It was a great torch until I dropped it, it only fell a couple of feet but never worked again. If I ever find a driver for it I would love to fix it, I have never found a better EDC.
Total Tools has a couple rebranded with their own logo, a 3xAAA zoomie and a 18650 rechargeable. Once again overpriced but decent lights.
SuperCheap has some quite nice ones including a few LED spotlights, some others around the size of Mags and a few from single AA to 2xAA and 3XAAA ones with zoom and ramping brightness control. I have a few from there.
Repco have had some various ones, mostly 3XAAA zoomies. Some not bad.
Great Outdoors has a few branded as Coleman and Primus, including a couple of nice magnetic control ring ones Like this one from CNQG Of course its much cheaper online. It could do with a lower low though I think.
Most of the hunting/fishing stores carry a few very overpriced models as hiking and hunting/rifle lights. Like the LED Lensers and Coast brands, and World Of Knives carries them too.
I fluked a decent little CR123 single LED light with side clickie from The Reject Shop once for $5, but usually theirs are multi LED junk
Since I joined BLF and started buying online I don’t think I have been too tempted to buy locally though, unless I have found something decent to gift to friends.
Bottom line there are none.
What retailers out there that do sell a range have to charge an arm and a leg for them.
You’ll do better on line every time, but especially in the budget range (cheaper Chinese) as most Aussie retailers stock the known
common brands like Led Lenser, Maglites etc, which are not the kind of high output lights we’re now accustomed to…
If your just looking for a smaller 210 lumen type torch, bunnings sells more than they used to(which quite frankly used to be shit all) so if your just looking for little general use type lights they should have something these days
I have been buying torches, Li-ion batteries and chargers from Jason at JPT for a number of years.
He is a very helpful guy who knows his stuff and has quite a few lines of stock.
His main dealings are with Olight, Jetbeam, Maglite, Crelant, Pelican, Nitecore, Xtar and Fenix.
He also has headlamps, LED conversion kits and safety lights.
He can check your old batteries for you and give you the right advice in getting the right batteries for the torch you have or are buying.
He often has specials on where the prices on some items drop a fair bit.
Cheers
Why was this post edited?
The link to the shop or what?
Mods on CPF at least let you know what you have done that is so wrong.
Yes it is hard to find a store in Australia to buy from that have a big range of brands and have a shopfront where you can see, feel and really work a sample one if possible maybe before you buy.
I rely a lot on the “Goingear Reviews” as probably a lot of you guys do.
Although most of his reviews are of the Big Name and more expensive brands.
Do we have a good reviewer on BLF that does reviews similar to Going Gear ones but on budget lights?
The shop I buy most of my lights from is JPT Australia at Taren Point in Sydney.
He has a good business supplying Government Agencies and other big companies like the big Airline maintenance inspection engineers as well as hunters, shooters, Police and Security Companies and flashaholics etc.
But he has time for the little guy to walk into his shop and see, feel and if possible see most of the products working or you can email him with questions or get advice.
We do not have an all-round company like “Going Gear” over here because of unique brand tie-ups and contracts etc.
Australia is only a small Country compared to the USA, China and Europe etc.
I am happy dealing with an actual real shop front, person to person.
And being like that you can trust by your own purchasing and warranty experiences whether the dealer is genuine and stands by the products they sell or are just shonky guys ready to grab your hard earned money without future support.
Otherwise we all have to rely on Light Forums for reviews and to get the opinions of those that have purchased and used these lights.
Forums do give you purchasing ideas and provide a great service for all of us flashaholics with a never-ending thirst for what is coming out or what works well.
I love BLF better than the so-called “Elite” and heavily moderated light forum called CPF, otherwise know as Counter Productive Forum.
Cheers
Here are a few more Australian LED torch sites.
http://www.ledtorchsales.com.au
http://www.ferei.com.au
http://www.mytinysun.com.au
Hope you find something there.
The Army Disposal shops have some interesting lights. Mainly lantern type lights, but they also have Led Lensers.
Also stop by those little shoe-fixing/key cutting type stalls you find in the shopping centres. Most have a variety of Led Lensers (with shopping centre markups).