I was a member of the 6th Preston Salvation Army Scouts in Gower Street, Preston. I started as a cub in the S.A. saving section before the affiliation with the Boy Scout Association in the 1940’s. I went through the cub, scout and senior sections and became scoutmaster at age 18 years. In 1957 I was part of the J.I.M. (Jamboree, Indaba, Moot) contingent to the World Jamboree in Sutton Coldfields England with 34,000 scouts from around the world. I attended a stage 2 Woodbadge Training Course for leaders at Gilwell Park England. I later hitchhiked across Europe returning to Australia 6 months later.
The Preston District had a district campsite at Kangaroo Point on the Plenty River behind the Children’s Colony on Plenty Road, Janefield which was run as an extensive farm property. We would obtain a key to go through a number of farm paddock gates to get to our campsite. On one of our weekend camps in the 1950’s, I cut a branch from a tea tree to make a scout stave (a scouting tradition for scoutmasters). My stave was four foot long with feet/inches notched into the wood. The stave had many practical uses apart from hiking. It was useful as a tent pole for a hike tent the other tent rope could be attached to a suitable tree. It also served a useful purpose in rousing sleepy boy scouts in the morning. It was also used to carry the winning patrol pennant during scout camps. Over the years I’ve added a number of stave badges here from overseas which are a reminder of past happy occasions.
Lewis C Tulk
2nd February 2018
Bundoora Victoria
