Scouting fun equals personal learning
Published Mon 11 May 2026
Photos by Tony Rosier Photography
The achievements of 59 Scouts were recognised at two Australian Scout Award ceremonies at Baden-Powell Activity Centre on Saturday.
The ceremony recognises those youth members aged 11 to 14 who have completed the requirements to attain the highest honour within the Scout section. Recipients received their certificates from Deputy Chief Commissioner Niamh Hitchman and Assistant Chief Commissioner Program Lachie Page to acknowledge the achievement.
The day also recognised the hard work of eight Scouts who were presented with their Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
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Chief Commissioner Bel Howell said it was important to consider what each person had achieved in non-Scouting words.
“In preparing for a journey, you learnt project planning and logistics, and reconnected with nature,” she said.
“In organising a camp, you learnt health and hygiene and managing teams. In completing your Special Interest Area projects, you learnt about environmental management and digital technologies.
“As well as all these, you’ve learnt negotiation skills, financial management, how to deal with difficult people, and positive leadership techniques. While you thought you were having fun, you were actually learning skills that you can use for the rest of your life.
“That’s where Scouting is a bit tricky – Scouting fun equals personal learning.”
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Venturer Scouts James Gillooly, from 1st Berowra Scout Group, and Felix Bramble, from 1st Castle Hill Scout Group, gave the respondent speeches at each ceremony on behalf of the recipients.
James said the highlight of the ASA was finishing the award and realising how much he had grown.
“I became better at leadership, teamwork, resilience, and staying organised. Seeing everything come together at the end made me feel proud of how much I’d improved,” he said.
“A key element of the ASA is developing our Outdoor Adventure Skills with sometimes the skills we enjoyed learning also being the most challenging. Camping was it for me. I love being outside, setting up camp, cooking with my Patrol and feeling independent. One of my favourite memories was at AJ2025, where we shared a site and teamed up with Scouts from Berowra, Asquith and Canada. Even though we’d never met, we worked together and learned heaps from each other.
“Camping was the hardest too, especially in bad weather, such as our tent flooding at Jamboree. But camping always brings people together and makes the best memories.
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“The main thing I want you all to remember and take away with you is to be proud – this award takes a lot of effort. We all faced setbacks, learnt many new skills (including leadership), and balanced school, friendships, socialising, Scouts and sports. The skills we learned don’t stop here – they’ll help us in everything we do.”
Felix said the journey to a peak award is not an easy one.
“We have faced challenges, both individually and with our friends, stepped out of our comfort zones, and explored our interests to develop lifelong skills and build confidence and resilience,” he said.
“There are so many experiences from the last few years that I’m sure we can all look back on happily, but the number one highlight for most of us is our Adventurous Journey. We hiked, we canoed, we took on extreme weather conditions, and we developed our leadership and organisational skills as we made decisions on the spot.
“My Adventurous Journey was especially meaningful as it showed how much I had grown in confidence, independence and teamwork. For me, the hike itself, from Forestville to Mosman, was not the most challenging part of the trip – no, it was all the planning that went into it, as well as needing to make leadership decisions for the wellbeing of my Patrol.
“One of the members of my hike became unwell at the start of the second day, so I needed to consider his health and wellbeing, so I decided he could not complete the hike and made arrangements for him to be transported home. I had to consider the risks of continuing with a smaller group, as well as managing the disappointment that my friend could no longer be part of this experience.
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“Congratulations to everyone here getting their award. I hope you have all enjoyed Scouts as much as I have and are planning to continue with your Scouting journey. Hopefully, I may even see some of you at a Scout event in the future, or even when we get our King’s Scout Award!”
Scouts NSW has been issuing Bronze, Silver, and Gold Duke Of Edinburgh's Awards since June 1980. To achieve their award, the Scouts have completed programs in Physical Recreation, Skills and Voluntary Service, as well as an Adventurous Journey of two or three nights' duration.
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a great companion to the Scouting peak awards, and many Scouts choose to complete both programs simultaneously, as work completed can be applied to both streams.
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Spotlight on our recipients
Scouts showed their individuality through a range of Special Interest Area projects and had new experiences and made memories on their chosen Adventurous Journeys. Read some of them below.
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Leo Bowron – 1st Blaxland Scout Unit, Greater Western Sydney The highlight of my peak award experience included completing my Stage 5 in Swimming, Camping, Bushwalking, and Bushcraft. This was the hardest part of achieving my peak award. Another highlight was my Adventurous Journey, where we walked from Sussex Inlet to Lake Conjola. I loved looking back along the coastline and seeing how far we’d come. When we reached Lake Conjola completing my hike felt like a great achievement that I had accomplished. |
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Claire Buggy – 1st Wattle Grove Scout Unit, Hume I really enjoyed my Adventurous Journey as I was able to get out in nature with some of my friends and forget the rest of the world existed. I really enjoyed getting to explore nature on the Light to Light Walk on the south coast. I especially enjoyed seeing a big red belly black snake less than 50m from our campsite that didn’t scare easy, as well as seeing so many other animals, and the beautiful sunrise breakfasts with the many beaches. |
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Tiegan Forrester – Nambucca Valley Scout Unit, North Coast I painted the whole concrete bus shelter near my house with a native flower design. I cleaned it; painted it was a light blue base coat on the inside and outside. I then traced on my design and painted all the flowers and leaves including banksia, kangaroo paw and monstera leaves.
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Ryo Goh – 2nd/3rd Lindfield Scout Unit, Sydney North The highlight of my peak award was my Adventurous Journey. I had a lot of fun, and I felt like all of my hard work had finally paid off. My Patrol and I hiked from Cowan down to Hornsby along Berowra Creek, after a stressful last-minute route change due to construction work at Cowan. During the hike we all formed stronger bonds and had a good time. The views and natural landscape around us were also very nice.
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Callum Hawken – 1st Ermington Scout Unit, Greater Western Sydney For one of my SIA projects, I worked out a Patrol scavenger hunt with codes all over the place and the Patrols had to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs as part of the SIA for finding out about my heritage, as my Papu is a Greek from Egypt.
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Anjali Kanodia – 1st Figtree Scout Unit, South Coast and Tablelands The highlight of my peak award was one of the SIA projects where I coordinated communication between my Cub Scout Unit and a Group from the UK. I got to plan and lead a Cub Scout night in which the 1st Figtree Cub Scouts participated in several activities. We sent a package of drawings and Group badges to the 15th Dover – St Andrew’s Cub Scouts in the UK, and then received a package from them with items that I shared with our Cub Scouts, including some badges and drawings of their own.
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Pradhyot Narsimha – 1st Carlingford Scout Unit, Greater Western Sydney A major highlight in my peak award experience was the connections I was able to form with my fellow Scouts and be able to work with them. When I went for hikes with the Patrol it was enjoyable to be able to scout routes and make sure that we were able to work together to reach the final destination point.
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Oliver Vickers – West Pymble Scout Unit, Sydney North I voluntarily attended a Montessori Model United Nations conference in Rome as a sole delegate for my given country of Argentina, which included writing position papers about two individual given topics. Each of my topics were covered on a different day; I had to read a summary of my position papers, debate with delegates from all over the world, and conclude with a solution formed from all of the countries working together, which was actually submitted to the UN.
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Zoe Williams – Epping Scout Unit, Sydney North The peak award journey was life altering; it showed me parts of myself that I didn’t know existed and fostered skills I will never forget. But in saying this, the highlight of the peak award experience was the hike with my friends. It was challenging, emotional, and at times made us want to give up (“Death Hill” – if you know, you know). But that feeling when you hit camp after a strenuous day is a feeling you are constantly trying to recreate.
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