Scouting and Guiding in Queensland - History

History

CHUMS Scout Patrols started forming in Australia in 1908 due to the circulation of CHUMS publication there. R.C. Packer in 1908 supported the formation of the League of Boy Scouts. St. Enoch's Presbyterian Church, Mount Morgan, Queensland formed its unit on November 23, 1908.

In 1909, the Australian League of Boy Scouts Queensland formed. Other groups could have been formed in Queensland by the Boy's Brigade Scouts, British Boy Scouts (BBS), Imperial Boy Scouts (IBS), Anglican Church Lads' Brigade's Church Scout Patrols, Girl Peace Scouts and YMCA Scouts.

In 1910 the CHUMS Scout Patrols merged with the BBS. Also in July 1910, the Australian League of Boy Scouts Queensland affiliated to the United Kingdom's Boy Scouts Association and changed names to League of Baden-Powell Boy Scouts, Queensland Section. St. Enoch's affiliated their company with the Boy's Brigade Scouts in 1910. Started in 1910, the Australian Boy Scouts had merged with the Imperial Boy Scouts to become Australian Imperial Boy Scouts (A.I.B.S.) by 1912.

The Church Scout Patrols ceased activities by 1912 while the League of Boy Scouts had stopped operating around 1914. A part of the Girl Peace Scouts joined the Voluntary Aid Detachments during World War I.

Baden-Powell's scouting organization finally extended itself to Australia almost five years after founding, known as the Baden-Powell Boy Scouts in 1914 later rename to the Boy Scout's Association. The League of Baden-Powell Boy Scouts, Queensland Section changes names again to Boy Scout's Association, Queensland Section.

Another part of the Girl Peace Scouts joined the Girl Guides in the 1920s. The Salvation Army's Life Saving Scouts start up in 1921. Boy Scout's Association, Queensland Section merges with the rest of the BSA. The Boys' Brigade (BB) Scouts program ended in 1927 while the Catholic Boy Scouts' Association is formed the same year by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in New South Wales and Queensland. With the end of the BB Scouts, St. Enoch's unit becomes a BSA unit.

Before 1939, the Boy Scouts’ Association in the United Kingdom sponsored juvenile immigration to Queensland.

The Boy Scout Association wanted their branches to receive monopoly status from the governments so as to control the scouting movement. The BSA sent Overseas Commissioners in the 1920s and 1930s along with Baden-Powell in 1931 and 1934 to Australia in support of this effort. In 1934, the BSA began a move to centralise control over Scout Groups by insisting on property being registered in the BSA's name instead of the local Scout Group. Also that year, the BSA's Queensland branch constitution was changed to remove State Council's elected local representatives. Scout Groups resisted but the BSA used World War II to further the centralisation.

In 1939, St. Enoch's BSA unit became independent as the Blue Boy Scouts. During World War II, the Australian I.B.S. disbanded. In 1942, Sir Leslie Orme Wilson, The Governor of Queensland, resigned as Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association, Queensland Branch due to the failure of the BSA to respond to his call for reforms to its centralization effort that led to the severance of the Blue Boy Scouts' tie to the BSA. Several scouts-in-exile groups started in the 1940s for eastern European scouts, including the "Plast Ukrainian Youth Association in Brisbane, Queensland."

The Australian Boy Scouts Association was formed in 1958 and incorporated On 23 August 1967, as a branch of The Boy Scouts Association of the United Kingdom. The Queensland Branch of The Boy Scouts Associatoin was declared a first Branch of The Australian Boy Scouts Association. In 1971 The Scout Association of Australia changed its name to The Scout Association of Australia.

On 15 August 1974, The Scout Association of Australia, Queensland Branch, was incorporated by Letters Patent issued by the Queensland government under the Religious Education Charitable Institutions Act 1861–1967. Only the members of the state council were members of this body corporate. The Scout Association of Australia Queensland Branch Inc is now incorporated under Associations Incorporation Act 1981.

The Scout Association of Australia, Queensland Branch Act 1975 made provisions for the vesting of property and related purposes in the Corporation styled “The Scout Association of Australia, Queensland Branch”.

The first Guide administrative meeting place was the YWCA rooms in Adelaide Street, Brisbane in 1920, but the name “Girl Guide Headquarters” was not used until the third established office in Victory Chambers, Queen Street in 1923.