Australian Boys' Youth Group Uniforms

Figure 1.--Scouting is the principal boys' uniformed organization in ASustralia. Australian Scouts made major uniform changes in the 1990s.

Australian youth organizations are basically the local organizations originally founded in England. The only two groups familiar to HBU is the Boys' Brigade and Boy Scouts. Of course there are also the Guides for girls. We have been able to find relatively little information on the groups in Australia. Interestingly, the history of these offered by these groups primarily recounts the founding in England rather than than the history in Australia. For some countries the subject of youth groups is is a complicated topic with many small groups for which little information is available. It is less of a problem for Australia as the youth movemrnt has been so identified with only two groups.

Boys' Brigade

The goal of the Australian Boys' Brigade is the same as in England, developing Christian lifeskills through a children's and youth ministry within Churches. This is achieved through a programme that focus's on enhancement of Boys' Spiritual, Physical, adventure, Community and Personal Interests. HBU has only limited information on the Australian Boys' Brigade. The Brigade was the first youth group to be organized in Australia.

Boy Scouts

Scouting in Australia commenced shortly after Scouting for Boys was published in 1908, the same year it began in Britain. As with all countries in the then British Empire, initially Scouting in Australia was very closely based on the way Scouting was structured in Britain. Baden Powell visited Australia in 1912 to help promote the local Scouting movement. He visited each Australian state and spoke to many newly formed troops. Baden Powell visited Australia again in 1931 and 1934 in his tireless efforts to promote Scouting around the world. In 1934 he attended the Australian Jamboree at Frankston in Victoria. As time went by an Australian flavor of Scouting developed. Those changes were eventually reflected in the Scout uniform. I have been able to find relatively little information on Scoting history in Australia. Many Australian Scout publications have a great deal of inforation on the founding of Scouting in England, but very little on its growth in Australia

Nationalist Groups

HBU knows of no nationlist youth groups in Australia. Until after World War I, most Australians generally looked on themselves as transplanted English. Some still do--in a recent election Australians voted to continue the British monarch as the head of state.

Unidentified Groups

We have found some images that we can not identify. The boys seem to be wearing youth group uniforms, but we are not sure what the group was. For some countries this is a complicated topic with many small groups for which little information is available. It is less of a problem for Australia as the youth movement has been so identified with only two groups, the Boys' Brrgade and Boy Scouts and of course the Guides for girls. Hopefully our Australian readers will be able to offer some information.