The 1st Boronia Group and sections were officially registered on 12 Feb 1931. First meetings were held in a cow shed somewhere on what is now High Street.
The 1st Boronia Scout Hall at 21C Farnell Street, Hunters Hill was officially opened by The Hon. Scout Commisions of NSW, Mr. William (Bill) Carr on 18 May 1957. It is believed that Bill Carr also passed away on this same as a result of a heart attack, and this is why the Hall is formally called the "The Bill Carr Memorial Hall". A brass plaque inside our hall commemorates this date:
The metal trusses used to hold up the Hall roof are believed to have been from the 1952-1953 Pan-Pacific Scout Jamboree held at Greystanes in Sydney.
In 2021 the exterior wooden weatherboards of the Hall (believed to the original!) were entirely replaced with modern equivalents, retaining the hertiage appearance of the Hall. The old exterior weatherboards were rotten, cracked, and covered with lead paint. The Hall now also has insulation to reduce energy costs for heating and cooling - and to provide some noise insulation for our neighbours.
Near the roadabout of Park Road and Princes Street, in Boronia Park is a commemotative tree that is growing at a tilted angle. At the foot of this tree is a small plaque commemorating ???.
Quotes from "H. F. (Frank) Windeyer 1914-1941", page 1:
Henry Francis (Frank) Windeyer was born on 31st March in 1914. He was the fourth child of William and Ruby Windeyer.
His father William was a Hunters Hill Council alderman and mayor in 1913 and 1917-1924.
Page 12:
Frank's involvement in scouting probably dated from 1922 and about the time his father got involved. On the ship going to England in 1921 William had met Baden-Powell; on return had supported the movement through the Hunter's Hill Council; from 1923 was on the Council of the NSW section of the Boy Scouts Association of Australia; and more significantly in 1937 he and a fellow solicitor gave the Moocooboolah District ten acres on Still Creek just north of Sydney as a campsite. Frank was to go from cub to District Scout Master before he enlisted for the Second World War.
Page 28:
As a memorial to their son, William and Ruby gave the Moocooboolah Scouts a further ten acres at Still Creek and asked that the site by called the "Frank Windeyer Memorial Camp".
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Our badge is in reference to the local Aboriginal word Moocooboolah meaning "meeting of the two rivers", as it shows the two rivers (today we refer to as the Paramatta and Lane Cove Rovers), the modern Australian Scout emblem, and a sprig of pink Boronia flowers. Anyone can grow the Boronia flower! Our official scarf colours are red and blue. |