Australian Guides assist make new Australians

New Australians make keen Guides

Every second Saturday at Woodside, the Girl Guide Movement is helping new Australians conquer their shyness and showing them the way to good citizenship.

Many of the girls have been Guides and Brownies in their own country and so have a link with their new land.  Others are learning the Guides lessons of good fellowship for the first time.

At a recent meeting of the Woodside Guide company the only Guide uniforms were those worn by two Guiders.

The three patrol leaders Irena, Genovaite and Lolita wore their colourful Latvian and Lithuanian costumes.

Round them were girls, large and small, most of them with scarves tied round their heads and wearing long, woollen stockings.

The plaits, braided across their hair and the tiny, hoop earrings distinguished them from Australian girls.

Learning the signs

Adelaide Guiders who visit Woodside to conduct these meetings were rather puzzled how to begin, because many of the children did not understand English.

They drew some of the Guide tracking signs, and immediately there was a ripple of excitement, and a dozen more signs appeared.

Hand signals and whistles have also proved helpful. Now more children understand the commands, act as interpreters for the others.

It was a very lively meeting that I watched. When the Guiders arrived, there seemed to be children everywhere.  Finally they resolved themselves into two crowds — 22 Guides and 34 Brownies, not to mention at least six small brothers, who insisted on joining in.

Like competitions

The children co-operated in games and Guide training.  They were shown the Australian flag, and listened to an explanation of its significance.  The Southern Cross fascinated them. They will be looking for it in our skies now.

They have a delightful sense of fun, and when the various patrols had a competition to collect the most brown objects there were ' peals of laughter, and the resulting piles included a heap of earth in a handkerchief, one brown stocking, a camera case, several brown shoes, and some tree bark.

The task of calling the Brownies' roll has been solved by the Brown Owl (Miss Marjorie Noel) .  By the name of each Brownie, there is a space for each meeting. In this space each one draws something — a tree, a cat, a bird.

Guiding in Europe began after World War I., and followed the ideals of the movement, which began in England in 1909 as an offshoot of Scouting.

In Lithuania the special task of the Guides was the preservation of their traditional games and dances, and national costumes were worn at all their festivals.

A characteristic feature of Lithuanian Guide camps is the arrangement of patterned borders along the paths.

These are strips of gleaming white sand with designs made with pine cones and coloured patterns of black charcoal, red, and pounded brick and green pine tips.

Soon the Woodside Guides will have Guide scarves, which South Australian Guides are helping to buy for them. On Christmas Eve, the Adelaide Guides are planning a party for them which will make their first Christmas in Australia one they will remember.

Miss Elise Wollaston is in charge of the Woodside company. She sometimes covers the nine miles from her home at Bridgewater by bicycle.

Not only are these young new Australians enjoying all the fun of guiding, but they are learning that, when they go to their new homes, there will be Australian Guide companies waiting to greet them as friends and fellow Australians. — Helen Caterer.

Mail, Saturday 17 December 1949 p. 17

First Lithuanian scout camp in SA

From 27 December 1954 through to the new year, Lithuanian scouts and guides gathered for their first camp in the State. On the morning of December 27th about 25 scouts and 23 guides boarded a specially hired bus from St Joseph’s church in the city to make their journey to the camp site at Lobethal in the Adelaide hills.  Thirteen tents were erected, with a wooden cross in between.  A kitchen, a dug in table that was decorated with a tower and cross with “rupintojelis’ in the middle.  Across the small creek the scouts build some steps to a site where the fire was built. 

Early the next morning the scouts arose for exercise which was followed by a quick tidy of their uniforms and tents before inspection.  Following this all marched to the cross for the flag raising where the scout prayer was said and the Lithuanian and Australian anthem sung.   After a hearty breakfast the days activities began. Sport, scout games, and camp improvements . After lunch followed some free time, then more activities.  As evening settled in the flag was lowered, a prayer said and the hymn ‘Marija Marija’ sung.  Once dark a fire was lit where campers would sing, perform skits or other performances.  The evening ended at 10:00pm and, only those on night duty were allowed to wander. 


Special guest, Mr E.W Dearman, the Country Fire Service area commander came to speak to the scouts.  He spoke of bush fires, how they occur, and how to avoid them. He lent the camp several fire extinguishers which was kept  outside the kitchen or by the campfire, or sometime used by the scouts for water fights.   Other speakers included P. Jasevičius spoke of the phenomena of folk meteorology.  Mrs Pacevičius spoke to the girls on hygiene and Stasiškienė taught the girls weaving, while some of the boys tried their hand at shooting a small calibre gun.

The camp was visited by distinguished ‘aunts and uncles”.  One evening Pulgis Andriušis visited and demonstrated how he could light a fire with one match.  He then spoke of his childhood.  Pakalnis sang  a moving ballad about the devil who tried unsuccessfully to build a bridge across the river Nemunas. Australian scouts leaders also paid visits, Mrs Trimble, Miss M Sullivan (SA District Commissioner) and Miss May Douglas (State Commissioner) and Mr W.R Thompson (Adelaide Commissioner).
Miss Douglas wrote a message to the scouts;


It is a great pleasure to see a such a good camp, particularly in conditions which are new to you all.  Congratulations on it all, good layout and most of all the evidence of real Scouting and Guiding spirit.


On another day the campers marched into Lobethal where they viewed the country town, then set about tidying up the war memorial and even sang a few songs to the hospital patients.