Page 2970 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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Scouting movement
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (4.37): Like many Canberra parents, I have the pleasure of having a young Scout in the family and serving as a volunteer office holder, in my daughter’s old Scout group, 1st Aranda, in Belconnen.
I was taken back to that time and reminded of the diversity of the Scouting movement recently when I had the pleasure of helping to open the newly renovated Ainslie Scout hall. It is reborn as the hall for Les Explorateurs Scout Group, who have conducted their Scouting activities in French for the last three years. For example, after the opening there was a Les Petites Lutins, or “Joey Scout”, investiture. What a fantastic way to learn a language or reinforce it—through a range of Scout adventures. Les Explorateurs is one of four language-based Canberra Scout groups, the others being German, Chinese and Spanish speaking groups.
There are over 66,000 Scouts in Australia, including around 2,000 Canberra Scouts—boys, girls and youths, aged between six and 25. A fair share of them are in the six Belconnen Scout groups.
The Southwell Scout Group is in Page, and the Mount Rogers Scout Group is in Charnwood. Mount Rogers, apart from being designated “Mountain Scouts”, has for some years hosted the rehearsals for the Canberra Gang Show. The show, held in July, requires months of rehearsals by up to 200 Scouts, Venturers and Girl Guides from across Canberra. The show has been running in Canberra each year since 1966. You may know that the Gang Show Scouts reprised this year’s show at Floriade on Saturday.
The Kama Scout Group in Macquarie has over 40 years of serving the community. Like other Scout groups that have waxed and waned as the suburbs have aged, the Kama group has grown—from the joining of 1st Cook Pack (Cubs), later named the Mount Painter Troop, and named 1st Macquarie, in 1980.
The Diamantina Scouts are recognisable in their distinctive orange scarves. They have been based at Kaleen high school since, sadly, their old hall was burned down in November 2010. However, Scouts are resilient, and the Diamantina Scout Group are busily fundraising to rebuild and equip a new hall. Businesses, individuals, Scouts ACT and Kaleen high are chipping in to help. Unfortunately, asbestos in the old building set the costs of demolition beyond what was covered by the insurance. They are hoping to have the new hall completed in about a year, but still have about $40,000 to raise if they are to replace everything.
The Crowajingalong Scout Group in Evatt is better known as the Crows. They recently held their end-of-term Christmas in July party at Palmerville Heritage Park.
The Lake Ginninderra Sea Scouts have a well-stocked boatshed near the old water police station. They have a range of sailboats and canoes that they share with the other Ginninderra Scout groups. Since 2008 the Lake Ginninderra Sea Scout Venturers have been regularly travelling to a seaside village in Lombok, Indonesia, to work on
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