What We’ve Been Up To
D’Aguilar Range District – NightOwl
D’Aguilar Range District held it’s NightOwl event. This is the third year running that the event has been held to prepare the Scouts and Venturers in our district for NightHawk. While it’s normally held on tracks at Bribie Island, recent rains and ongoing flooding saw the event moved to Karingal this year. Scouts braved the cold to go on a night hike around the tracks of Karingal, stopping at 5 bases to compete for points. Scouts were assessed in their preparedness for a night hike as well as gadget building, first aid, fire lighting, knots and trivia as well as their ability to map each part of their route using their maps and compasses. The scouts were supported on the event by leaders and parents from around the district as well as 4wd support from qualified leaders.
The Scouts and Venturers thoroughly enjoyed the event, some getting a chance to practice their skills for NightHawk, others confirming which skills they will need to focus on over the next few weeks. The scouts were assessed on a wide variety of skills although my personal favourite was their last trivia question where they had to sing a verse from their favourite campfire song with points awarded for enthusiasm and team participation.
This year was the first year that there were multiple Venturer patrols and so the very first Venturer trophy was up for grabs, designed and built by one of our Venturers. The patrols were neck and neck most of the night but their knotting knowledge bumped the ‘Mixed Mob’ patrol to the podium with Venturers from Caboolture, Woodford and Burpengary. The Scout section had more patrols competing but the standout winners to take home the Scout trophy this year were the Bribie Koalas patrol thanks in no small part to their rousing rendition of ‘My Name is Joe’ ringing out into the night. Scouts finished off the night with Hotdogs and after the presentation ceremony the next morning, some of the youth celebrated with a few hours of ziplining over the dam. All in all a great experience for the Scouts and Venturers and some tired youth on the drive home. Congratulations to the Mixed Mob and to Bribie Koalas and good luck to all teams as we head into NightHawk!
Knight Moves
Now in it’s eleventh year of operation, the annual Brisbane North Region Knight Moves activity camp was held at Murrenbong Campsite on Saturday 30 July 2022. The event was attended by 227 Scouts, 29 Venturers, 7 Rovers and 55 Leaders.
Knight Moves’ main purpose is to engage Scouts in a night-time activity that challenges their navigation and hiking skills with a lot of fun thrown in.
At the start of the night-time activity, Patrols were given an instruction booklet titled the “Pirates Guide to the Caribbean Sea” which described in detail how to navigate to the activity bases (A.K.A the Islands in the Caribbean Sea). Patrols had to find and identify 25 Route Markers, each Marker had it’s unique Pirates Code which when deciphered led them to the Caribbean Islands. As an incentive to follow instructions and navigate properly, the navigation component earned the most points for Patrols.
Bundaberg Air Activities
Our Air Activities Team ran an activity day at the Bundaberg Airport on Sunday 24 July. Although based in Brisbane the team of volunteers travelled up to Bundaberg, the home of famous Australian aviation pioneer Bert Hinkler, to educate and inspire the local youth members in all things aviation. Over 130 youth members attended and enjoyed learning about how aircraft fly, built model gliders, took control of one of our flight simulators and even took to the sky in either a fixed wing or rotary wing flight experience around the airfield and over Bundaberg City. For some, it was the first ever time in an aircraft, and for all, it was an amazing day for a bird’s eye view of the Beautiful Bundaberg City.
Plenty of support also from the local Airport community. Thank-you to Greg Barrington from Bundaberg City Council, Insp. Wesley Bruce from QFES and Aircraft Australia for giving us space to operate our activities at the airfield.
