February 2005

Members’ Night – History of the Girl Guide Movement in Traralgon

Speaker: Nola Mathews

It all began in 1923 when Rev. Blundell was transferred to St James’ Church of England in Traralgon. He saw the need for the youth of Traralgon to fill their spare time with adventurous activities and formed a Scout Troop (in later years there were to be nine Scout Troops and eight Cub Packs). Rev. Blundell realised that girls also needed a challenge and, after speaking with Bishop Cranswick, arranged for Deaconess Clare Warren to sail from England to assist with youth work in the Diocese of Gippsland. In 1924 the Reverend and Deaconess called a public meeting to gauge the interest in forming a company of Girl Guides.

Adventurous activities for girls was something new but the first meeting of Girl Guides in Traralgon was held in June 1924. Girls aged 11 to 15 years paid six pence registration, wore a navy hat, one-piece navy dress, leather belt, black stockings, and a triangle-shaped tie. Deaconess Warren was appointed Commissioner; Eva West, Captain; and Mrs Layton, Lieutenant. They enrolled Alice Bell, Ethelwyn Leonard and M Stayner, while Estelle DuVe, Freda Kerr, Melva Christensen, Bertha Wigg, Nellie Fawkner, Norma Scott, Muriel Layton, and Marjorie Whitney worked on their pre-enrolment tests. Eva West received her warrant on 9th April 1925 and the First Traralgon Girl Guide Company was officially registered on 5th May 1925.

Girls in outlying farms also wanted to take part in this adventurous group but were unable to travel into town to the weekly meetings. As a result, the "Lone Guide" section was commenced in May 1926. Girls from Glengarry were travelling to guide meetings on their horses and so the first Victorian Mounted Guide Company was registered. Younger girls, seven to ten years old, were also wanting to take part in the wide variety of adventurous activities and the First Traralgon Brownie Pack was formed in April 1926. As the years passed, girls didn’t want to leave Guides when they reached the age of 16, and there were many senior girls wishing to join-in the challenging activities – the Land Ranger Company was formed in 1927 for 16 to 21 year old girls. It later became the Sea Ranger Group when an ex Women’s Royal Australian Navy member moved to Traralgon; and after that, M.A.T.C.H Ranger Group when Morwell, Traralgon, Churchill and Hazelwood combined.

Scouting and guiding inter-challenge activities were held at an annual field day and Dentist, Mr A. E. Hall, donated a silver rose bowl as a perpetual trophy. Guides and Rangers in each town played competitive basketball (to travel from town-to-town, one of the dads supplied his truck to which church seats were roped) and in 1931 the Traralgon Guides were the district basketball champions, having to travel to Melbourne to play the metropolitan champions. When Rev. Blundell left Traralgon he donated a shield for Guides and Scouts to annually compete in activities including fire-lighting (with only two matches to be used), outdoor cooking, star gazing, stalking, tracking, trail blazing, tent pitching, identifying flora and fauna, and following coded messages to reach a destination.

Service was carried out in many ways – collecting baby clothes for the "Save the Children Fund"; collecting food for war food parcels; knitting tiny bonnets and jackets for premature babies; serving sandwiches and tea at the blood bank; planting trees (with the aid of Apex Club members) and cleaning windows for the elderly at Yallambee retirement village; going into the bush (with parents and Apex Club members) to collect wood for the needy; keeping tidy around the grave of founder, Eva West; entertaining the children at ‘Swan House’ care centre; assisting in blowing up 2,500 balloons for the Road Safety Council day; entertaining Legatees, the elderly at Monomeath and Yallambee, and the children in the hospital ward; and assisting in planting one million trees in 1980 for ‘Conservation Year’. In 1957, the Baden Powell centenary year, "Thinking Day" was introduced and the girls had to do a ‘good turn’, which became known as ‘willing-shilling’ or ‘bob-a-job’.

1975 was the Golden Jubilee of Guiding in Traralgon. Past members, commissioners and leaders were traced and a history written. Over 2000 people gathered at the Technical School hall for a celebration depicting ‘Past, Present and Future Guides’. A collection of over eighty uniforms, commencing with Miss West’s first, showed the changing styles. By mid 1970 there were four Guide companies and five Brownie packs in Traralgon. Sadly today there are two Brownie, one Guide, and one Ranger group surviving.