1st Cora Lynn Scout Troop By Frank Rouse

The information in this post comes from Frank’s recollections and from his October 2009 conversations with Jack McDonald and Ron Chatfield.

The Cora Lynn Scout Group. 

Mike Kinsella standing at front on the left. Dad, Frank Rouse, is standing at front on the right. Jack McDonald, is seated, second from left.

The 1st Cora Lynn Scout Troop was formed in 1945. We met each week in the Cora Lynn Hall. The first Scout Master was Bert Ridgeon. Bert had been in the British Army and this showed in the way he ran the troop. We stood to attention, saluted the flag and repeated the Scouts Promise at the start of each meeting, I promise on my honour, that I will do my best to do my duty to God and the King, to help other people at all times and to obey the Scout Laws. Bert’s favourite game for us to play afterward was “British Bulldog”.

We were well trained in using ropes, tying knots, and lashing poles together. At one stage we built a rope bridge, to span an imaginary ten yard wide creek, in the Hall grounds. The bridge was built in one evening and we walked across it about six feet above the ground. It didn’t fall down on anyone so we passed that test. Tying knots has been a very useful skill I’ve used during my life. Clarrie Leamon started as Assistant Scout Master about one year after the Troop started and he became Scout Master after Bert Ridgeon retired.

The Scout Laws said you had to be 11 years old to become a Scout. However if you were 10 years old you could become a Tenderfoot Scout and you could do all the tests but you couldn’t wear a uniform until you were 11 years old. In 1947, Dudley Fisk, who lived near Nar Nar Goon, started to bring quite a few Nar Nar Goon boys to join the Cora Lynn Scout Troop. Dudley Fisk started a Cub Troop at Cora Lynn, but later he transferred the Cub Group to Nar Nar Goon. This was closer for him and there was no Scout or Cub Group in Nar Nar Goon at that time.

Our early camping experience was at Forest Camp on the Cannibal Creek, where the Tynong North Road met the Gembrook Tominbuk Road. The first time we camped there the regrowth from the 1939 fires was only shoulder high, it is now 50 metres high. Cora Lynn Scouts continued to have camps in that area for several years. We were taken out on the back of Frank Egan’s truck and later by Terry McMillan. Sometimes we rode our bikes out.

From December 29 1948 to January 9 1949 the Pacific Jamboree was held at Yarra Brae in Wonga Park. Five Cora Lynn Scouts attended - Mike and Gerard Egan, Jack McDonald, Mike Kinsella and Frank Rouse. We were joined with the 1st Caulfield Scouts. The Jamboree had quite a few scouts from the Pacific Island nations.

Frank in 1949/50, most likely taken before his trip to Fraser Island.

December 1949 to January 1950 Mike Kinsella and Frank Rouse went to the Fraser Island Adventure. We were joined with scouts from the 1st Oakleigh Troop. It was a great adventure, it took four days by train from Melbourne to Brisbane, bus to Maryborough and then taken to the Island on an old cattle barge. We were given our day’s food rations each morning, cooked our own food and slept on a ground sheet in the open. There was a small amount of formal activity, after which we were free to swim and hike. Tourists hadn’t discovered Fraser Island so the Scouts had all the beautiful places to ourselves. One of the Scouts developed polio and we were quarantined on the island for an extra week. Great for us but no good for the polio victim.

Cora Lynn Scouts went to the Greystanes Jamboree in Sydney in 1951-1952 – they were Bruce Reid, Jack and Bob McDonald, Ewan Slater, David and Tony Evans. In 1953-1954 Jack McDonald and Bruce Reid with Scout Master, Clarrie Leamon, went to the Lamington Plateau Adventure. In 1956 Scout Master Clarrie Leamon died suddenly. Gordon Johnson became Scout Master then Gordon arranged that the Scouts would meet in the Cheese Room of the Cora Lynn factory. This became the Scout Hall. Unfortunately, Gordon was killed in a truck smash and his brother-in-law then became Scout Master, followed by Alan Standfield. Jack McDonald assisted Alan for a while. The 1st Cora Lynn Scout Group continued to about 1960.

Known members of the Cora Lynn Scouts. Bob Wakenshaw and Jim Rouse were Lone Scouts, that is they belonged to the Scouting Order before there was a Scout Group at Cora Lynn. Other members (in alphabetical order) John Chatfield, Ron Chatfield, Bill Crowley, Jack Crowley, Steve Crowley, Edwin Dillon, Des Dineen, Gerard Egan, Mike Egan, David Evans, Tony Evans, Geoff Fisk, Allan Games, Neil Hewson, Ron Higgins, Wayne Higgins, Gary Huntingford, Ross Kenny, Mike Kinsella, Terry Kinsella, Frank Lane, Bill McCutcheon, Bob McDonald, Jack McDonald, Trevor Price, Bob Quigley, Gerald Quigley, Kevin Quigley, Bruce Reid, Stan Riches, Frank Rouse, Drew Slater, Ewan Slater, Ron Townley, Keith Wilkinson.

Frank Rouse retired from the Scouts in 1952, when he was 18 and did his National Service.

Note: This was originally in the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Historical Society Newsletter and after it was published Des Dineen contacted me and gave me the following information. Notes from Des Dineen -   Edwin Dillon and I were in the CL Scouts under Gordon Johnson (“Skipper”) and Alan Standfield until they disbanded about 1962 when we were transferred to the Garfield Troop with Fred Cox as scoutmaster and Bill Parish was the District Commissioner. Edwin and I went on to become Queen Scouts and Senior Scouts at Garfield. We attended the World Jamboree in the Police Paddocks in Rowville as “Hamarago On the Hill” Troop, a combination of Tarago and Hampton. We also attended Easter Scout camps at Gembrook. They were very competitive and Fred Cox ran a very smooth ship we would always try and win awards for the cleanest camp etc. Others involved were Peter “China” Holland and Peter and Colin Cox.

National Service by Frank Rouse

National Service was introduced in Australia in 1951, in response to the Cold War and the rise of Communism. The first intake was in April 1951 and it was abolished in November 1959. It operated again from 1964 until 1972.  This is Frank’s story of his National Service.

Photo: Frank Rouse, on the left, and George Jones on the right.

I was called up in the third intake, at the end of May 1952, when I was 18. This intake took in men from Gippsland.  I spent three months at Puckapunyal, where we lived in a hut with 15 others, eight beds down each side. During the three months we learnt to march and handle a rifle and learn the rifle movements. We had to guard the transport depot, I had the midnight to 4.00am shift and the men from the regular Army used to just ignore us and just walk in. At the end of the three months we did a three day march, 20 miles per day, in full uniform with a 303 rifle, back pack and two ground sheets. We slept with a ground sheet on top of us and it was very cold at night. We received our rations in the morning and had to cook them during the day. Each Unit had a Bren gun which also had to be carried.

During this three month camp I was chosen to attend a march through Melbourne. Only three from my hut were selected. We got the bus to Melbourne and lined up with hundreds of other service men and military bands at the top of Swanston Street, near the old CUB brewery. We marched the length of Swanston Street to the Shrine where we were given refreshments and I caught up with Mum and my sister Dorothy, who had came up from Cora Lynn for the day. It was interesting to march through the crowds and to hear the people cheering.

After that, if you lived near a Drill hall, such as the one at Warragul, you had to attend every Friday for two hours for two years. Because I lived at Cora Lynn I had to attend two three week camps. They were at Scrub Hill near Puckapunyal.  At the first camp, I volunteered to be a driver and drove the Doctor (a Colonel) around in a Jeep. At the second Camp, I volunteered to be medical orderly, as I had done First aid training in the Scouts.  First thing in the morning was a medical parade where I treated minor ailments, made toast for the Doctor and did whatever else I was ordered to by the Doctor. The majority worked on Artillery, alongside the regular Army, and they operated 5½ inch guns which had a twenty mile range.

In 1954, the Queen visited Warragul and as I was still doing my National Service a day guarding the Queen was a day off my National Service.  I rode up from Cora Lynn on my motor bike to the Drill hall where we were assembled. We were inspected to make sure our uniform was correct, issued with our 303 rifles, and then marched over the railway bridge and along the highway to about where C.S & J.S Brown’s garage is (near Napier Street)

From there we were spread along the edge of the road (the old Highway) over the hill and almost down to the railway crossing, on each side of the road. We were stood ‘at ease’ by about 9.45am and we waited for the Queen’s entourage. We waited, unable to move or leave our positions. It was a very good thing that we had better bladders then than we have now.

At about 11.45am the word went out that the Queen was coming and we stood to attention ready to ‘present arms’. The entourage flew past at about 50 miles an hour. We marched back to the Drill hall where we handed over our rifles and we were dismissed.

Other locals who did national service with me were George Jones, from Warragul; Aub Goodman (Vervale), Kevin Batchelor (Bunyip), Mulga Shelton (Pakenham), Butch Giles (Trafalgar),  Stan Riches (Garfield), Ian Chatfield (Nar Nar Goon) and Kevin Wilby (Modella).

I asked Dad how he felt about his National Service and he was very positive about it as he said it was interesting, the other blokes were all a similar age and had a farming background or worked in saw mills, so they all had a similar outlook. Dad had been boy scout so he was used to camping and he was already used to hard work as he had been working on the farm full time since he left school at the end of Form 4, so he found the work easy and what’s more he got paid seven shillings per day, whereas he was paid nothing at home.   Heather Arnold.