Media Coverage
Ladies and gentlemen. I am the Unit Chair of our Venturer Unit & the 1st Ballan Chief Scout Ambassador. On behalf of everyone at the 1st Ballan Scout Group, welcome to the official opening of the new 1st Ballan Scout Hall.
Now if we could all please respectfully turn our attention to our friends who will be facilitating a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony that would be appreciated.
Welcome to Country & Smoking Ceremony
The 1st Ballan Scout Group would like to acknowledge the Wadawurrung people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather today. As we present to you, we pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all first nations, Torres Strait Islander and all other groups here today.
Today Scouting is the common factor that brings us together as a community standing before the newest community facility for the township of Ballan. Can I please see a show of hands amongst you of those who were once a member of the Scout Association, as a youth or adult member? That’s amazing. Please remember … we are always looking for new leaders and youth so introduce yourself and come and join us. This is a very special day for our Scout Group and the Community of Ballan and along with welcoming everyone here today, I’d like to formally acknowledge and welcome ….
The Honourable Natalie Suleyman MP, Minister for Youth
Mr Sam Rae MP - Member for Hawke MP
Member for Eureka Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture & Regional Development Ms Michaela Settle
Moorabool Shire Mayor Rod Ward
Chief Commissioner of Scouts Victoria Rod Byrnes
Sadly, there are some people who couldn’t make it today, but they have sent us their best wishes:-
- The Chief Scout of Australia, His Excellency the Governor – General David Hurley
- The Honourable Linda Dessau - Governor of Victoria
- The Honourable Anthony Albanese MP – the Prime Minister
- The Honourable Catherine King MP – Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development & Local Government
- The Premier, The Honourable Daniel Andrews MP
- Councillor Ally Munari – Moorabool Shire Council
- Colleen Thomson – District Commissioner
Correspondence
We are delighted you could all join us here today to celebrate the wonderful work that has been done in partnership with the Federal Government, Victorian Government, Local Moorabool Shire and Scouts Victoria who worked together to create our amazing new Scout Hall. I would now like to invite Georgia & Ben to help highlight the journey involved.
The property we’re standing on today was originally owned by Girl Guides Australia. Back in 1970, they realised what Guiding in Ballan could achieve if the girls had a home of their very own. So when an opportunity came up to purchase an old railway house for a grand total of $50 they jumped on it! The Guides carefully planned the 1-acre site to provide a Guide Hall and a campsite large enough to enable a full Company of 36 girls to live under canvas. They planted native trees which would provide shade for generations to come and at the same time assist in the work of conservation of our natural flora. The girls themselves played quite a significant role, planting trees, painting, cleaning up the grounds, laying and cleaning bricks, cleaning windows and other jobs that would help make their “home” attractive, as well as practical, for their many and varied activities. We’d like to thank all those Girl Guides in the generations before us who put in so much hard work to develop the site into something that was also our home until we recently outgrew it.
This site was purchased by Scouts Victoria from Girl Guides Australia in 2016. While we loved our little scout hall that was full of character it really wasn’t large enough to support our growing group and didn’t quite meet today’s standards. Although I do miss the open fireplace and those outdoor toilets!! Our new hall began being built in February 2022 and took one year to build. It cost $1.2 million dollars to build!! I know what you’re thinking….. that’s a lot of sausages!! BUT we were fortunate enough to receive:
$550,000 in Federal Government funding
$550,000 in State Government funding and
$100,000 in Local Government funding from Moorabool Shire Council
Our new facility now meets the requirements of our growing Group to ensure we are able to continue providing awesome programs aimed at developing resilient youth and building future community leaders. Once we’ve settled in and fully established the facility. We will look at how it can be made available for the wider community. If you are interested in sharing this facility, please fill out an Expression of Interest Form inside.
Scouting is, of course, much more than buildings. Scouting is about people. There are more than 50 million Scouts in the world today, and there has been more than 2 billion Scouts over the past 115 years.
Every one of these Scouts has their own story about what they’ve got out of Scouting.
Some people think that Scouts is about tying knots and camping in the bush.
While this is true, being a Scout is so much more: it’s about working together, learning leadership skills, extending your comfort zones, finding out new or more information about the world and the environment, meeting new people, serving our Community and most of all having fun.
While I enjoy camping, hiking, canoeing, climbing and abseiling with my friends at Scouts I also enjoy the opportunity to simply relax, sit around a campfire, talk, laugh and have fun. Scouts is a safe place where I can simply be me. I have been fortunate to meet many people from all over Australia and immerse myself in opportunities to assist and support our local community.
Before we officially open our wonderful Scout Hall, we would like to extend an invitation to our Federal, State, Local and Scout representatives to say a few words.
"I’d like to invite The Honourable Natalie Suleyman MP, Minister for Youth to come up and say a few words ..."
"Thank you Minister Suleyman. I would like to invite Mr Sam Rae MP Member for Hawke to say a few words ..."
"Thank you Sam. I would like to invite MP Member for Eureka Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture & Regional Development Ms Michaela Settle to say a few words ..."
"Thank you Michaela. I would like to invite our local Moorabool Mayor Mr Rod Ward to say a few words ..."
"Thank you Rod. I would like to invite the Chief Commissioner of Scouts Victoria Mr Rod Byrnes to say a few words ..."
Thank you Rod.
As mentioned earlier this project is a joint venture between the Federal Government, State Government of Victoria, Local Moorabool Shire Council and Scouts Victoria, but we would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank those who have invested time, money, expertise, energy and effort in supporting our 1st Ballan Scout Group and us as young people.
While it is difficult to try to remember and name everyone who has helped create this amazing facility … I’m going to give it a go. On behalf of 1st Ballan I would like to thank:
The Honourable Catherine King MP and Immediate Past Chief Commissioner of Scouts Victoria Mr Brendan Watson – here with us today - while your portfolios and roles are now different you were there at the beginning thank you
District Commissioner Colleen Thomson for your dedicated and tireless support towards 1st Ballan
Uniting Church Ballan for giving us a place to call home and ongoing support for 8 years
John Fabre for investigating & helping spark community interest in the Hall Development through a feasibility report
Ballan & District Bendigo Bank for assisting with funds for today and provisions to make this Hall a Community Asset
Ballan & District CWA for teaching our Venturers to bake and providing food for today
With most of the ingredients coming from her back yard one of our Cub Scouts has prepared some amazing bush food for today including:
Lilli Pilli Macarons
Cinnamon Myrtle Shortbread
Anise Myrtle Chocolates
Wattleseed Meringues
Lemon Myrtle Creams
Peppermint Gum Chocolate Slice
Strawberry Gum Drops
River Mint Tea
Peter & Cathy from BMHE for our shelving
Digital Surveillance Solutions for providing security services at our Hall
Ballan Lionesses and more recently Steptoes Community Op-Shop for continuously providing support for the growth & development of our youth – most recently with funding provided for 12 of us to complete a Remote Area 1st Aid Course
Roger MacRaild for helping write and submit a Landcare Grant to help us continue with the landscaping of our property
Peter Cowan for helping store our equipment during the Hall development
Ballan Farmers Market for helping fund our trailer and this year our outdoor parade ground & campfire area as we continue to landscape our property
Our amazing local Ballan Police, CFA & Ambulance Officers
Nichole Knight
Lou Callow
Ballan & District Chamber of Commerce and all the local businesses of Ballan who have all supported our Scouting Journey
Andrew Beard at RhyeMedia for helping create and support our amazing website
Victorian Gold Panning Association
All our past and current Leaders, Families & Committee Members We have all been part of this journey together and on behalf of all our past and current youth members – THANK YOU.
We would like to call our mums up to say a huge thank you. Throughout the entire development of our new Scout Hall, they have been the Committee representatives and driving force supporting the build. Through writing the Moorabool Shire Grant, liaising with Scouts Victoria and seeing the project through to completion on behalf of our 1st Ballan Family, THANK YOU.
"We would now like to invite The Honourable Natalie Suleyman MP Minister for Youth to come up and join to us once again to unveil the plaque."
Thank you Minister Suleyman.
It’s 115 years since Lord Baden Powell came up with an idea for young people that:
learning is fun learning is better when working in small teams (or Patrols)
the outdoors is a great classroom and
learning is embedded when the youth have direct input into their program and lessons.
As result of this idea the World has seen Millions of social justice campaigners, rock stars, politicians, astronauts, environmentalists, teachers, nurses, sports people, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and emergency service workers and volunteers apply the skills they learnt and developed as Scouts to support communities locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. Scouts really can do Anything and Everything!
I’d now like to call one of our Venturers up to Seal our Time Capsule and say a few words.
Time Capsule Sealing
I have been organising the community time capsule over the past few months, and I have spoken to many of our community members who may be here today.
The idea for a time capsule came from when we were looking for the time capsule that the Guides buried here 50 years ago, we heard several different theories as to its location, but in searching for the time capsule we have not found it.
I thought it would be nice to create another one, to commemorate our new hall being built, and I thought 50 years was a good timeframe as the Guide Hall stood here for that long. So, on the 4th of June 2073, I will be 65 years old, and I hope to be standing here again with the Joeys, Cubs, Scout, and Ventures that are here now and watching the time capsule be opened by the scout group of 2073.
We have a lot of items to go into the time capsule and a lot of people have helped contribute so I want to thank everyone for supporting me in this project by supplying information and items that are relevant to Ballan today.
The capsule won’t be fully complete until we get a plaque for it, we will have to raise some funds to pay for that and place the plaque here for everyone to see.
I need to thank a couple of people for helping to build the time capsule, my neighbour who works for Pro Pit who donated his time with the framing, and donated the lid, Eureka Concrete Ballan for donating the concrete and my dad, for helping to coordinate the construction, and for encouraging and supporting me. The lid will be fully sealed later this evening.
We will now put the items in and close the lid.
DO NOT OPEN UNTIL:- Sunday 4th June 2073
That completes today’s formalities. We now invite everyone to enter and explore our new Scout Hall and taste the delicious delights provided by the Ballan CWA as well as the Bush Foods prepared by one of our Cub Scouts.
Thank you so much for being a part of this day.
Scout Victoria Mobile Abseiling Tower
THANK YOU for the Amazing Donations Boxes
Boroondara Mobile Bouldering Wall
