Rose Planting for Guides
July 30, 2018
Golden Rose
On a very cold day in July, a special church service was held for Girl Guides and their families at the Ballarat Central Uniting Church. 11th Ballarat Guides organised an item depicting a bible story and presented this to the congregation (complete with real loaves of bread and fish).
After the service, the Guides gathered to witness the planting of a yellow rose. Up until this point, we thought this was to mimic the actions of Brownie Guides in 1975 when the ‘Ribbon of Gold’ project resulted in hundreds of Victorian Brownies planting yellow trees and flowers. We now know that this was not quite right.
50 Years of Brownies
In reality, the rose was actually planted in May of 1964 to acknowledge the Golden Jubilee of Brownie Guides. In Melbourne, some Brownies joined the Governor’s wife, Lady Delacombe, and planted a Sutter’s Gold Rose at Government House. Brownies throughout Victoria also planted roses, which were selected because Robert Baden-Powell originally named Brownies as ‘Rosebuds’.
Lady Delacombe was the president of the Girl Guides Association of Victoria at the time.
The 9th Ballarat Brownies planted the rose at the Ballarat church in 1964. Our recent rose planting was organised by local Guide Leader Margaret Littlehales, the only person in attendance to have also been part of the 1964 planting.
What a great opportunity to be involved in re-creating history.
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