Girl Guides. Girl Guides. Girl Guides. Girl Guides.
[wptb id=6374]1966 – 1986
By Jo Addis
The first meeting of those interested in forming a group of Girl Guides and Brownies was held in Nyabing Hall on May 5, 1966. Mesdames House and Phillips came from Gnowangerup to introduce the principles of Guiding. Mrs Phillips telling those who wished to become Girl Guides the part they must play. Two Patrols of Guides were formed as follows:
Patrol One: Leader was Cheryle Goodchild, Second was Ann Hobart, with June Larter, Maureen Rule, and Marlene Flower.
Patrol Two: Leader was Gail Kimberly, Second was June Davis with Linley Manuel, Marilyn Goodchild, and Kerry Goodchild.
Guide Captain was Mrs Val Goodchild wit Mrs Jessie Flower as Lieutenant and the District Commissioner,was Mrs Peta Patterson.
1st Dec 1969 – Year 7’s Leonie Tuffley, Janet Emery, and Vivien Patterson
1968
Rear – Lieutenant Jess Flower, June Larter, Marilyn Goodchild, Leonie Tuffley,
and Dot Carmody.
Front – Lynnelle Tuffley, Raylene Hobbs, Viv Patterson, Jenny Phillips,
and Janet Emery
Brownies were Jane Langley, June Hobley, Susan Reeves, Jenny Phillips, Lynelle Tuffley, Debra Obst, Raylene Hobbs, Julie Beattie, Dianne Coate, Christine Phillips, Vivienne Patterson, Arlene Manual. The Brownie Leaders; Mrs Phyl Rule, Miss Moya Rodgers (school teacher) and Mrs Jean McLaren.
The Girl Guides were officially registered on 19 May, 1966, and the Brownies on 16 June, 1966. Both bodies were backed by a mother’s group known as The Local Association of Girl Guides. Foundation members were Pat Crosby (President), Faye Tuffley (Secretary), Margaret Phillips (Treasurer), Lesley Langley, Beryl Obst, Jean McLaren, Phyl Rule, Eileen Reeves, Eileen Coate, Joan Manual, Marjorie Goodchild and Miss Moya Rodgers.
Guide meetings were originally held in the old golf club house, followed by the Tote Building when the Shire reclaimed the golf club for the Shire Depot. Then in 1983 they moved to the “Old School building” (now known as the Brownie Hut).
First Guide Camp 1966
The first Girl Guide camp was held at Ian and Peta Patterson’s farm at Boongadoo in 1966. The girls used ridge pole canvas tents with no floor. Camping is a lot different today with floors in the tent and zip up fronts to keep the insects out. Most outdoor fires have been replaced with cooking on gas stoves, not as much fun as sitting around a campfire cooking damper, toast and billy tea.
Brownies and Guides were held on Thursday during school term as this was shopping day for everyone; fresh vegetables came in that day. In 1983 when both groups started using the same building with Brownies moving to Wednesday. The building was in very poor repair and only Guide/Brownie use has helped to maintain it (it was repaired and repainted in 1986). The building is now used for Nyabing Youth Group activities and is having a face lift for the centenary celebrations.
Mrs Dot Carmody (Principal’s wife) took over from Val Goodchild in February, 1967, as Captain with Jessie Flower as Lieutenant until December 1968 when Dot left Nyabing and Jessie retired from Guiding.
In 1969, I (Jo Addis) attended the Anzac Service in April and Peta Patterson asked me if I would be interested in becoming a Girl Guide Leader. I was so impressed with the way the girls presented themselves in uniform and their behaviour, I decided I would give it a try and see how I liked it. In those days the ex-servicemen and women, Girl Guides and Brownies marched from the Town Hall to the RSL Hall gates for the service.
For a quick initiation in the Guide Program, Peta Patterson was going to meet me at 3pm to run through the program. I arrived on time and Peta was late, she arrived later saying, “I’m late, here’s the program, you only have three girls and they will know what to do. See you at 5pm after Brownies”.
At 3.30pm along came Viviene Patterson, Leonie Tuffley and Janet Emery. Reading the program they said don’t worry about what is written there, we do things our way. By 5pm I decided if this is Guiding I don’t think I’m interested. Next day I realised they were having a bit of fun with me, so I went and got a few books and read as much as I could. The next week things were different and they got quite a surprise to find I wasn’t as dumb as they thought. We got on well after that and became good friends. More girls flew up from Brownies (a ceremony for Brownies graduating into a Girl Guide unit) during the year. We had nine girls in the unit in December 1969.
The Girl Guide program changed in 1969, the year I started. I don’t know much about what happened from 1966 – 1968. The girls worked on a program called the Eight Point Program.
The Guide motto is “Be Prepared”.
Links of the World Family.
The left handshake of friendship.
The Guide salute.
The World badge is worn by all members of the Girl Guide Association around the World.
The Chiefs Lord and Lady Baden-Powell.
Guide Law
The Girl Guides had a patrol with a Leader and Second and a group of girls in each Patrol. Each had their own Emblem which were different birds, eg. Rosella etc.
The hand signal was a hand held over the head by the Leader, means stop what you are doing silence. I have seen a room with 200 girls become silent in two minutes.
The girls worked for their eight point badges (which were first year yellow, second green, third year red, fourth year blue), by doing something from the eight points. Some of the activities meant earning badges as they were a big part of the program and were designed to help the girls learn skills that would be useful as they grew up. Some of the most popular with the girls were cook, craft, athletics, child nurse, collector, toy maker, home maker, laundress, local history, pathfinder, swimmer and first aide. Other activity was how to make a fire and light it with one match. Some girls became very good at it.
Lots of outdoor cooking took place during the winter, making damper was most popular, apple and cinnamon wrapped in alfoil, angels delight – bread spread with condensed milk, dipped in coconut and then toasted. Banana in skins split down the middle with three pieces of chocolate inserted and wrapped in alfoil, pikelets and sponge cake cooked in orange shell. Cooking their tea was always popular. These were all cooked on the coals. Some of the girls cooked a three-course meal at the pavilion to earn a badge. They had to make the invitations, set up the tables, cook and serve the meal and do the dishes.
Hiking was popular over the years. Some of the places we went were to Batt’s and Foxall’s farms, and Moornaming Siding through the bush.
Giving Service: Girls worked for the tidy town by cleaning the streets and roadside rubbish and handing out leaflets around town. The Guides served morning tea to the Judges and Stewards at the Nyabing Agricultural Show for many years.
Craft: Teaching the girls to sew by hand and later we had a sewing machine. Some of the Guides did very well. Others thought it was a waste of time. This also covered learning to iron.
Knotting: Knotting was big part of the program as the girls had to learn these before going camping so that they could put up their tents, etc. Most girls didn’t enjoy knotting and will always remember trying to learn the reef knot.
Camping: Camping was always a big part of our activities, even though I didn’t have a camping qualification the parents supported me. I will always remember my first camping experience. Sheila Hobley and I decided to take the girls camping in 1978. My neighbour, Harold Altus, gave us permission to use his farm. We set up camp on a Friday night after school. It was quite a warm day and Jackie had forgotten her blanket so I lent her one of mine (big mistake). It came in very cold with a light frost. Sheila and I froze all night.
I also learnt never to take the girls camping on a moonlight night. They ran around the wee hours of the morning making Milo, eating and playing games. They told me the next day they were so excited they couldn’t sleep. After all the activities on Friday night they slept well Saturday night. On the Sunday when we were packing up and the parents had arrived for afternoon tea, a very big snake decided to pay us all a visit and stopped under the table. Thanks to a father he was moved on.
Later when one of the mum’s went to the toilet (which was one of the outdoor kind) she saw something move under some old bags that were lying nearby. Inspection by some Dad’s found we had been using the toilet all weekend with a nest of baby snakes nearby.
Hyden Camp: I took a group of girls to Hyden for an overnight camp. They set up their tents in the bush with Sheila and I sleeping in our cars. Sometime after tea the girls kept telling us how late it was and thought we should go to bed. Knowing they were wanting us to go to bed to have a midnight feast. We decided to go to bed even though it wasn’t as late as the clock said. Next morning when I woke up it was 6am. So I got up to stoke the fire. Sheila asked why I was up so early. She had found her watch and said it was only 5am. Then we realised the girls had put the clock on a hour and didn’t set it back when they went to bed. So I decided to play dumb and wake them up at 6.30am. They kept telling me it was only 5.30am. But I told them I didn’t believe them and they had to be up and ready for a walk before breakfast. After a full day activities we drove back to Nyabing with some very tired Girl Guides. They weren’t happy when they knew what they had done.
Collins Camp: We went for a walk in the bush and I found a skeleton of a Bobtail. I picked it up and carried it back to camp and placed it on a post. That night when I went to check my bed (I always made it a certain way so I knew if the girls had put anything in it). I put my hand in my sleeping bag and found the lizard. Thinking it was the older girls I put it in one of their beds. Sheila and I went to bed and heard the girls having their midnight feast and fell asleep. We were woken by a terrible screaming and rushing into our tent. Saying something was in the bottom of a sleeping bag. After quite a lot of discussion it was the younger group that put it there. One of the girls had heard her older sister saying they played tricks on Mrs Addis by putting things in her bed.
Dot Stephens and I took some of the former Guides, who were attending High School, to the Stirling Ranges [ii] for the day. We climbed Mount Toolbrunup and then had a BBQ lunch. It was nice having a day with these girls and enjoying a chat about guiding days.
In 1986 I had been running Girl Guides for 15 years. Brownie/Guides for six years on different days each week. It was getting too much for me so I made the decision to close the Girl Guides and keep the Brownies going. I will always have wonderful memories with the Girl Guides.You were a great bunch of girls and I had good support with the parents and unit helpers. I couldn’t have done it without you all.
Yours in Guiding – Jo Addis.
1966-2002 Reunion when Guiding closed in Nyabing. Mrs Val Goodchild seated.
“I had an automatic station wagon with a gear lever on the steering wheel. I used to give the girls a ride down to the shop. One day when everyone was in the car (no seatbelts then) Neryl was sitting next to me and as I started the car she shifted the lever, the car went forward just missing the corner of the building.” – Mrs Jo Addis
“The Tote Building had a gap right around the top of wall which let in all the spiders and as all the girls know I was scared of spiders. This day I walked in with the girls behind me, as I put my box on the table a big spider ran across towards me. I yelled and jumped backward knocking some of the girls over as I went out the door.” – Mrs Jo Addis
“The Girl Guides planted the trees at Charsley’s farm from the entrance to their house in 1971. Roy was only 18 months old and when he annoyed the girls too much they put him in a hole and left him there. I couldn’t find him. The girls said look in the hole.” – Mrs Jo Addis
“Sitting around the camp fires at night singing and telling stories and the girls always trying to find out my first name.” – Mrs Jo Addis
Leaders from 1966-1986
Jo Addis, Val Goodchild & Dot Carmody at Guide Reunion in 2002.
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