G'Day Fella's,

Not sure iirc but I think Jack Warne owned Sportco and they made, .22LR (Model?), .22Hornet and .222Rem (Model 33 ?) rifles. Iirc, they also made the Model 44 single shot (7.62/.308Win) target rifles, under license from Omark in the US. Again, iirc, the Sportco factory was located in Sth Australia but not at Kimba itself.
After this, they packed up and moved to the US, and as mentioned above, the rest is history.
Apparently Jack Warne liked the name Kimba and named the US business "Kimber (of Oregon)", after the town of Kimba, in rural Sth Aust.

Forgot to mention, I also own a Kimber model 82 in .22LR.
It has a beautiful walnut stock (Californian Claro?), and shoots better than I can.....like One Raged Hole 5 shot groups, at 50 meters (with the right ammo).

Hope that helps add to the story.

Doh!
Homer