By Taylah Eastwell and Danielle Kutchel
More than 3000 cubs from scouting groups all across Victoria called Gembrook home last week, spending an action-packed week in local scrubland.
Gembrook’s Gilwell Park hosted Scout’s Victoria’s 10th Victorian Cuboree event, with a fleet of 109 busses dropping 3271 the cubs off to the campsite on Monday 12 April.
The cubs, aged 8-11, were well cared for by 1466 volunteer leaders, parents and older scouts known as Venturers and Rovers aged 15-25.
For many, the Cuboree camp marks the cubs’ longest holiday away from home.
Each child received a commemorative Cuboree shirt, scarf and badge with the logo representing the 2021 theme – New Horizons.
Space themed activities during the week included a muddy obstacle course, orienteering, tee pee construction, a maze, craft activities, a colour run, a disco and a mass sing-a-long.
Chief Commissioner of Scouts Victoria, Rod Byrnes says the cubs were well prepared to cope with five days away from home.
“For many children – and parents – the idea of living five days in the bush with friends, sleeping four nights in tents, eating outdoors, sharing the chores of daily life, and tackling a challenging activity program would be daunting.
“But our cubs have been practising for Cuboree with smaller camps with their own local cub units.
“They are learning to be resilient and independent, and to care for others,” Mr Byrnes said.
Narre Warren cub pack akela Bronwyn said the atmosphere at the Cuboree was “fantastic”, with attendees relishing being able to attend in such large numbers after the restrictions of Covid.
The event had originally been slated for last September, but was moved due to the pandemic.
She said kids picked up a variety of new skills over the week, growing in their teamwork, leadership and resilience.
“The main thing I enjoyed was watching the kids grow,” she said.
Her cubs loved the muddy run, and by the end of the week, none of them were ready to go home, she said.
Annette, a cub leader at Berwick Central Scout Group, said it was good to see the kids able to return to the outdoors.
“You could just see in their faces that they were happy being out,” she explained, adding she was grateful to the organising team for ensuring the event could go ahead.
She said her cubs had grown as people.
“They absolutely come away more mature. They also learn that they can do things that they thought they couldn’t do.”
Nine cub scouts from Devon Meadows Scout Group were also among the attendees, and cub leader Sarah said the cubs reported having a great time.
“The cubs loved all the activities but especially the mud run, the rocket bottles, learning about people with disabilities and had fun making an annoying kazoo, aka the annoyer 2.0 whistle,” she said.
“The activities were designed to teach the Cubs new skills like orienteering and problem solving as well as further strengthen their teamwork and ability to look after themselves.
“The added bonus of sleeping in tents with their new friends from other packs also added to the fun!”
Sarah said scouts are next turning their attention to VicJam, a camp for Scouts aged 11-15 years.
The Devon Meadows club is currently fundraising for the camp through Bunnings sausage sizzles.
Annette said the Berwick cubs are also excited about VicJam, with some able to attend later in the year if they are old enough.
Cuboree was said to be 100 times larger than any school camp the cubs may have attended, with the $1.3 million budget including $420,000 in food to feed the cubs over the week.
Menu items includes 5000 litres of milk, 30,000 slices of bread, 130kg of Milo, 100,000 pieces of fruit and 600 litres of sauce – with special diets for 900 people.
The transport bill alone, for buses which picked up and dropped off cubs all over Victoria, was $175,000. Organisers hired 200 toilets.
The Gembrook event is the biggest camp held for Australia’s cub scouts and one of the biggest cub scout events in the world.
