1929 Rotary Boys Week Internet final

Описание: This 16mm film taken by C.T. Simpson (a Scout leader in Victoria with an early interest in cinematography) appears to show the 1929 Rotary Boys’ Week. This event was a week-long celebration organised by the Rotary Club of Victoria. For the record, Scout Heritage Victoria volunteers have identified it as the 1929 event by comparing the “Boy Scouts thank Rotary” sign seen, with images in the illustrated Melbourne newspapers down to the slight angle some letters are being held at.
Saturday 4 May 1929 was the final day of the events, and newspapers along with Scouting history documents record that about 3,000 Scouts marched through Melbourne to the Motordrome (now the site of Melbourne’s large soccer stadium in Olympic Park). There, displays by Boy Scouts, Sea Scouts (at this time regarded as a parallel part of the Scouting organisation in Victoria just like the military had army and navy) and the junior Y.M.C.A. boys were given.

The Rotary Club of Victoria had begun to take a serious interest in Scouting in 1924 after a committee investigated the work of the Scout Movement and recommended their support and cooperation. In May 1925 the first “Boy Scout Week” was organised (later, as in 1929 extended to boys organisations more broadly). That initial week had raised 12,000 pounds as an endowment fund for Victorian Scout Headquarters.
Rotary’s level of involvement will be noted with T.L. Stafford, the Chairman of the Rotary Club, standing with the Scouts’ Chief Commissioner of Victoria, Arch Hoadley, as Scouts parade into the Motordrome.

Quotes used in this film to explain what is seen are taken from the several newspaper articles and photographs of the event available online from the National Library of Australia. Melbourne’s newspapers covered the 1929 event with several short articles and extensive photography.
The film also gives an indication of the atmosphere at semi-regular Scouting events in Melbourne during the 1910s and 1920s, where Scouts paraded through city streets on special occasions, and held rallies and competitions at various city ovals and parks. Such parades and demonstrations seemed to occur once or twice most years for special events. The Cohen Shield (still a competition event in Victoria) was also presented at this event.

This is just a sample of the material which the volunteers at Scout Heritage Victoria are working to preserve for the Victorian community and especially the Scouts of the past, present and future.