Australian Scout Jamboree

The Australian Scout Jamboree is a national jamboree overseen by Scouts Australia. They have been held regularly since 1934, except for 1942 and 1945 due to World War II, and in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jamborees are generally held early in January and typically runs for ten nights.

The first jamboree in 1934 was held in Frankston, Victoria, and was attended by the World Chief Scout, Robert Baden-Powell. The Frankston district still uses the original Jamboree logo as its district emblem.

Early events

The 1st World Scout Jamboree was at Olympia London in July/August 1920, and there were Australian and Australian state contingents to this and the subsequent international jamborees. Whilst the 1934 Frankston jamboree was designated the 'first' Australian Jamboree, there were earlier events. Australians also attended a jamboree in Dunedin, New Zealand, in January 1926.

The January 1922 Scout corroboree at the Sydney Showgrounds totalled over 540 youth members (with a Victorian contingent of 90 scouts, South Australia with 100, Queensland with 100, and Sydney northern district between 250 and 300 scouts). The January 1923 Scout corroboree in Melbourne saw a NSW contingent of 920 scouts. The 'all-Australian Scout Corroboree' of January 1924 in Adelaide expected about 1500 scouts, with a NSW contingent of 500 scouts, Victoria of 400, Queensland of 50, a first time with Western Australia of 30, and Tasmania of 25 scouts. Activities included tent pitching, fire lighting, billy boiling, trek card obstacle race, and cyclist stretcher races.

From 15 January 1927, the Lake Sorrell reservoir, from Hobart, Tasmania was the site of an all-Australian 'jamboree' with about 300 Scouts. Limited to First Class (award) scouts, after the event it was also referred to as the 'all Australian Corroboree', the New South Wales contingent having 151 participants. By this time, the word 'jamboree' was becoming more known.

Corroborees continued with the Seventh 'All-Australian' Scout Corroboree at coastal Lake Illawarra, NSW in January 1930, with the 1936 Australian Scout Corroboree looking like a national jamboree: 26 December 1936 to 4 January 1937, Belair National Park, South Australia, of 4000 scouts with contingents including all Australian states, Ceylon, Nauru, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Administration

Traditionally, Australian Jamborees were hosted on a rotational basis, with the order of hosting being South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and New South Wales.

Each Scouting Branch (State) is the effective host of the jamboree and takes responsibility for its management. The host for the next jamboree has been opened to a tendering process.

Australian jamborees are held on a triennial basis. Following AJ2025, Scouts Australia planned to move to a quadrennial basis, however this decision was reversed. The next Australian jamboree will be held in January 2028.

By world standards, Australian jamborees are medium-sized, with the largest jamborees being held in Europe and North America and generally hosting between 35,000 and 40,000 participants.

Organisational structure

Committee

The Jamboree Executive Committee (JEC) has the primary task of organising and running the event. The host state takes the responsibility for forming a JEC from local scouts and scouters.

Contingents

The largest organisational unit of the jamboree is a contingent. There is one contingent for each of the Australian States and Territories, a contingent representing the national leadership of Scouts Australia, as well as New Zealand and other international contingents.

A unit consists of about 36 Scouts, six patrols of youth members and six to seven leaders. Each unit shares a common camping area where they will cook, sleep and socialise for the duration of the jamboree. Units are generally made up of members of the same state contingent, and overseas contingents are mixed into domestic units.

Youth members in units are further subdivided into patrols of five or six Scouts. The most experienced Scout is generally given the task of being 'patrol leader' ('PL'), and another experienced Scout is assigned as 'assistant patrol leader' ('APL'). Scouts work in patrols for all activities and tasks during the jamboree. PLs are given special prizes and a special lunch to acknowledge the important task they carry out.

Scouts must be between the age of 11 and 14; although in AJ2025, this included Venturer Scouts. Typically, attendees must also have earned badges for Milestone 1, Outdoor Adventure Skills Stage 3 in Bushcraft, Bushwalking, and Camping, and slept ten nights under canvas at scout activities. Participants are expected to cook for themselves, keeping their sleeping area and campsite clean and tidy, participate in their assigned activities, and cope with the experience of being away from home for the period of the jamboree.

Subcamps

A jamboree campsite may be broken up into several subcamps. Each subcamp will contain troop-lines of units from various contingents, each site usually having a decorated gateway. The subcamps are named according to the jamboree. For instance, the service leaders subcamp at the 13th Jamboree at Collingwood Park was named Nyeri, the home of Scouting's founder.

For AJ2025 in Queensland, the three youth subcamps were Fraser Coast (region), Tuan (state forest), Cheeli (named for lagoon), and two service leader subcamps were Wook-Koo (nearby First Nations park) and Mungomery (vine forest). An additional subcamp informally named K'Gari (island) hosted members of the Jamboree Executive Committee.

List of jamborees

Other participants

Older members, mainly Venturers and Rovers, also attend the event as 'service leaders' to assist with activities and other tasks. Younger members, including Joey Scouts and Cub Scouts, and families and friends of Scouting are able to visit the site as day visitors, especially on Future Scout Day (Market Day), where games and stalls are set up by the jamboree's scouts.

Activities

Jamboree activities are a mixture of on-site and off-site activities that seek to challenge the participants, reinforce Scouting values, provide valuable and new experiences, and most of all, be great fun.

The programme of the 2nd Australian Jamboree (1938, north Sydney) saw contingents arrive (Thursday, 29 December 1938), 5000 scouts marching through Sydney (Friday), official opening and invitational campfires (Saturday), Scouts' Own services and campfire (Sunday), Cub Day (Monday), Fraternising Day with troop visitations between subcamps, Gilwell reunion, veterans' reunion (Tuesday), Overseas Day with displays, with a public campfire (Wednesday), Sea Scout Day with an afternoon display on the Lane Cove River (Thursday), Excursion Day for sight-seeing (Friday), Girl Guide Day and night displays (Saturday), Farewell Day with an optional Scouts' Own, finishing with a general campfire in the arena in the evening (Sunday), and the final day as Closing Day to break camp (Monday, 9 January 1939).

Activities for the AJ2019 (Tailem Bend, SA) included:
* The Smash Zone – an activity in which nine scouts were given two minutes to smash three cars
* Ice skating
* A camp inside a camp at Woodhouse, the site of the 2004 Australian Jamboree. Activities such as pioneering, high ropes and low ropes, archery tag, orienteering, an arcade room and an obstacle course were included
* BMX biking
* Mud pits
* Abseiling and rock climbing
* Mountain biking
* A day exploring in Adelaide
* Land sailing
* Shooting
* Flying – like the 2007 Jamboree, AJ2019 had an airstrip on site
* Skateboarding
* Raft building, canoeing, swimming, rowing and sailing at Wellington Marina
* Drone flying
* Crate stacking.

On site

During a jamboree there could be more people on the jamboree site than there are in some regional towns. Considerable resources and infrastructure are set up at the jamboree sites to ensure the safety, well-being and enjoyment of all participants. Some of the jamboree resources include:

* Main and secondary stage areas
* Shopping mall
* Socialisation areas
* Medical centre and first aid posts
* Internet café
* On-site radio station, to which both Scouts and leaders contribute
* On-site newspaper
* Transport depot
* Police and security
* Temporary on-site fire station
* Banking facilities including automatic cash point machines
* Warehousing of food and consumables
* Reliable communications infrastructure
* Fresh water supply and grey water processing.

AJ2007 activities

Activities

The 21st Australian Jamboree in Elmore, Victoria, featured four off-site activities: Wet Wild and Windy, Riverforce, Bushwacked and Ready Set Bendigo.

On-site activities included Venture Extreme (learning about linking to Ventures), X-Site (circus-themed), Planet Blitz (focused on recycling and the environment), Rock Sports (rock climbing and abseiling) and Sky High (joy flights over the jamboree site, and at Rochester; the site having its own airstrip). Game On was another activity featuring six bases. It included sports, car smashing, mud and a giant water slide. Additional on-site activities included a carnival, circus skills, contingent HQ, subcamp activities and a mall.

Other activities included bush tracking and navigation, water activities (canoes, rafts and swimming at Lake Nagambie), exploring Historic Echuca, visiting Bendigo, and many mud activities.

An amateur radio station was also set up at the Jamboree by the Scout Radio and Electronics Service Unit (Victoria), utilising the special event call sign VK3JAM. A notable achievement of the station was a live link to the International Space Station when Scouts had to opportunity to talk with astronaut Sunita Williams in orbit of the earth.

Entertainment

AJ2007 featured much entertainment, with music acts such as Evermore, The Rogue Traders, Björn Again, Tripod and Taxiride performing on the main arena; along with numerous cover bands. Stunt planes and Motocross riders brought other nights alive; along with a Marquee called "The Place" which had themed discos.

Cleanup

Clean up of the site involved removing 200 tonnes of rubbish, dismantling 16,000 square metres of marquee, and removing 208 portable buildings on site, including toilets. It was expected to take a fortnight using 50 volunteers. The Scouts had already taken down their own tents and troop facilities.

AJ2025 activities

The Maryborough event featured a number of all-day off-site activities: Your sights (day trip to Maryborough), Your seaside (day trip to Hervey Bay beach), and Your attraction (Australia Zoo visit).

On-site activities, mostly half-day periods, included:

* Your action: Air blower soccer, archery, archery tag, beach games, hatchet throwing, laser tag, motorised cooler racing, and pioneering;

* Your adventure: Archery tag, trail cycling, geocaching, laser tag, orienteering, and a survival challenge;

* Your challenge ( mud run);

* Your choice: Amateur radio, scout badge swapping, code quest, drones, escape rooms, garden games, heritage, laser cutting and etching, woggles and leatherwork, pyrography, woggles and woodworking;

* Your discovery: 3D printing, aqueduct challenges, exploration museum, Lego Masters, soldering, robot discovery, Scrabble, and rocket bottles; and

* Your summit: Zip lines, milk crate challenge, abseiling, and rock climbing.

The arena ('Your entertainment') had different evening events:

Notes

References

External links

The first Australian JamboreeScouts Australia website
with information on the next jamborees
Victorian Jamborees' daily newspapers
(digitised on Trove)

{{Scouting in Australia

Scouting jamborees
Jamboree, Australian Scout