The first recorded New Members night was in 1977 (there most likely were earlier celebrations they just weren't recorded). In the Centenary book, it is stated "QCYC also acquired, in 1948, one of the ceremonial icons that remained a pan of club lore: the club cannon used to start races and salute boats on special occasions, which was designed and made by Al Rae. ("the cannon, by the way, was selected to announce the official opening in 1983 of the Queen's Quay building on the site of the Terminal Warehouse Building where Al had operated his retouching business for many years.)" Though it mentions its use to salute boats on special occasions it does not specifically mention the gunning in of new members. Richard Slee, our club historian has a movie of the gun in use on the lawn in the late 40s or 50s but it looks like it is being used to start a race or announce the finisher. It might be deduced that the gunning in of new members occurred sometime after 1990. Even Paul Horne the current gunner was not sure when the gunning in of new members started however he did say that Marshall Purdue did it before him and recounted an interesting story of Marshall mounting the gun on a table on the balcony firing it through the railing which resulted in the paint being burned off. 

Many thanks to Sency Galaxia for photos of the festivities.