Brownies in Delacombe

Written by Kaitlyn Brown after working on a clause of the Queens Guide Award.

For the Guiding Traditions section of the Queens Guide Award, I chose to learn all about Australian Brownie Guides. My Junior Guide unit was originally a Brownie Guide Pack, but that was way before my time.  I have seen the unit photo albums and it looks really interesting.

I researched Brownies on the internet, in old handbooks, and in a book that was written in Ballarat called “And Then We Practiced Our Stalking”.

Over a few weeks, I visited the Delacombe Junior Guides and taught them about Brownies. We discussed the brown uniforms, the concept of ‘Boggarts’, and the names of Leaders (Brown Owl).

We ran the activities each week in a round-robin format so the other Leaders of the unit helped. We:

• Read the traditional Brownie Guide Story while they acted out the parts. The following week they created modern versions of the story.
• Made owl bookmarks
• Sung the song of each six that was part of the Delacombe Brownies
• Decorated biscuits, as that was an activity previously enjoyed by the Brownies
• Showed them photo albums of 1st Delacombe Brownies enjoying activities in brown uniforms
• Taught them about the original sixes of the unit and played a memory game with images of six emblems
• Explained the concept of Lend a Hand and a Good Turn and handed out sheets for them to complete