18th March 2024

On Saturday 16th to Sunday 17th March 2024, 1st Ferntree Gully Joey Scouts headed to Gilwell Scout Park in Gembrook along with the other Joey Scouts from City of Knox District. 

We started the weekend off by setting up our campsite before beginning our activities of bouldering, archery, low ropes course, building bush huts and bushwalking.  

Before heading to bed, we took the opportunity to enjoy the clear sky and were able to look up at the stars! 

On Sunday we all helped each other to pack up our campsite before heading off for breakfast and heading off to our final activities of water, parachutes, radio codes and frisbee golf.  

Throughout the whole weekend, the Joey Scouts learn to become independent, resilient, and building new friendships.

"I liked the bow and arrows (archery) and the rock wall (bouldering)" - Elijah

"I liked archery and watching the stars" - Luca 

Our planned clean up of Ferny Creek (Not the suburb - the creek that runs behind our scout hall) also happened on the weekend - we had a great turnout and succesfully cleaned up the creek. This was part of the Clean up Australia project which  we delayed because of the Knox Festival which clashed with the national Clean up Australia day.

3rd March 2024

Yesterday, 1st Ferntree Gully Scouts participated in Knox Festival, with a stall aimed at making our group better known in the community.  To this end, we had (mini) Basketball Connect-4 game for people to play - it was really popular and had a queue of players fro much of the day. We had a table full of photos a table of photos from our group - doing everything from cooking to rafting to abseiling to camping to just playing games. 

Thanks to our fabulous volunteers who gave up their time to help put is out there into the community.

6th February 2024

13th January 2024

In the final stages of 2023, 618 Scouts from across Australia boarded flights to Auckland, New Zealand for the 23rd New Zealand Scout Jamboree at the Mystery Creek Entertainment Centre. Two of those Scouts (Merrick Patterson & Cale Miles-Pearce) and a Leader (Conrad Miles) were from the 1st Ferntree Gully Scout Group.

We suited up, packed our bags, grabbed our snacks for the flight and headed to the airport. Upon arriving in Auckland at 2am on Friday morning, we headed to our accommodation for a short nap before heading out for a couple of days of exploring a foreign (to us!) city and bonding with our new Patrols that we’d be camping with for the next nine days. Those nine days were filled with a myriad of adventures, tasks, CHORES and shenanigans. Quad bike riding, abseiling, rock climbing, .22 rifle shooting, paddle boarding, swimming and sailing were but a few of the items on the list for the Scouts to enjoy.

In our down time, there were opportunities to play chess and mini golf, relax in some giant beanbags and read a book or partake in the standard Scouting past time of badge/scarf swapping with the various countries that had attended. There were movies played every night on a giant outdoor screen that helped the Scouts unwind from a jam-packed day that started at sunrise and finished at sunset.

The Scouts in their Patrols all took turns cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for their Troop (6x Patrols), meals that included butter chicken, pasta bolognaise, sweet and sour pork to name a few. It was quite gourmet for being out in the middle of nowhere! At the end of the 9 days, we headed to the Rainbow’s End theme park for a day of rollercoasters, rides, naps, junk food and New Zealand’s nation drink L&P!

Conrad ‘Spike’ Miles, Scout Leader, 1st Ferntree Gully Scout Group