Girl Guides in Ballarat

Guiding in Ballarat

Guiding was introduced to Australia in 1910 and grew in popularity after the war. Lady Stradbroke, wife of the State Governor, was appointed as the first Victorian State Commission in 1922, creating a centralised administration body.

In July of 1922, a meeting was held in the room of the Mayoress, Mrs Pittard, at the Ballarat City Hall. The outcome was the formation of the first Ballarat Local Association. Mrs Maxwell-Gumbleton, wife of the Ballarat’s Anglican Bishop was elected as president, with medical practitioner Dr Florence Cooper appointed as the Commissioner.

Originally, the encouraging force behind the foundation of the Girl Guide movement in Ballarat was from local schools, and later from the churches. Ballarat’s first unit in 1922 was the 1st Ballarat (Queens Church of England Girl Grammar School) Guide Company. This was followed in the same year with the formation of the 2nd Ballarat (High School) and 3rd Ballarat (St Andrews) Guide companies.

The 4th Ballarat (All Saints) Company was formed in 1924, captained by Mary Mills, a teacher at Queens.

It was in this very first year that some of Ballarat Guiding’s most well-known names were first introduced, including:

• Norma Clark - an original member of the Queen’s Company who later dedicated her life to Guiding
• Lilian Ling - one of the earliest District Captains at the High School unit
• Mona Montgomery - Commissioner of 2nd Ballarat and Queen’s staff member

In these early days, Guiding was considered "fairly innovative and a potentially radical development".

According to Janice Croggin (author of "After lunch we practiced our stalking") Guiding was perceived as challenging the traditional roles, and moulding the hearts and minds of girls in new and often revolutionary ways. Yet the emphasis was still strongly focused on feminine accomplishments such as physical exercises, roller bandaging, drill work, ambulance work, horseshoe formation for enrolment with colours and morse code signalling. Girls worked towards the following badges : cook, cyclist, music lover, laundress, milliner, domestic service, homemaker, health, clerk, writer, motorist and photographer.