1. the original Scout Hall - today used by the Rovers as their den - built in 1950.[1]

2. the main Scout Hall - the large hall used by the Scouts, but excluding the Scout Leaders' den, kitchen, and toilets - built in 1960 [2]

3. the Scout Leaders' den, kitchen, and toilets (built somewhere between 1969 and 1971) [3]; and

4. the Cub Scout Hall - completed 1982.

Official records show that, in August 1947, the Group Committee sought to obtain a lease on Crown Land at 27 High Street, Berowra with a view to building a clubroom for use by the 1st Berowra Cub Scout Pack. A Special Lease was arranged with the Lands Department in July 1949 to lease 1 rood 20 perches of land for 14 years at an annual rental of £1/0/0. The lease was subsequently increased, in 1950, to 2 roods 34 perches (2,883m2). In May 1952 it was decided to turn the Special Lease into a Special Purchase, however finance was difficult to arrange and it was not until 19th April 1955 that the Crown Grant of Land was accomplished at a cost of £122/18/6. Mrs Cunningham's father Mr Hugh James of Yallambie Road was instrumental in this purchase, as too was Mr Jack Donovan (solicitor of Hornsby).

The Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Advocate of 1956 records the marvellous involvement of the whole community in working towards building the Scout Hall.

The erection of a Scout Hall at Berowra is the community project set down by the Rotary Club of Hornsby for this year. The Club, working in conjunction with the local committee, is arranging for a big carnival to be held in the old school premises on April 21. The immediate object is to raise somewhat over £300 for the erection of the hall, most of the work for which is being done by the enthusiastic local committee with voluntary labour. (Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Advocate, 22nd February 1956, page 5).

HEIGH-HO! COME TO THE BEROWRA FAIR!

The Berowra Scout Committee expects the fancy fair on Saturday next, April 21, to be one of the best attended events in the district, and to provide more real fun than any function held locally for a long time. It is being held on behalf of the building of the Berowra Scout's Hall.

The fair will be held in the Old School grounds during both afternoon and evening. It is being strongly supported by the Rotary Club of Hornsby, which is manning a number of stalls and conducting the competitions, including those for a wireless set, a number of electrical gadgets, a ladies' dressing gown, a red frangipani, etc. etc.

In addition to the stalls, there will be a number of side attractions and entertainments, including horse rides, slippery dip, hoopla, and chocolate wheels.

DECORATED BICYCLE FLOAT CONTEST

A decorated bicycle float competition will test the ingenuity of the local children, aged up to sixteen years.

Mr Harry King, of Hornsby, has introduced novel ideas for these floats - space men, pilots, cowboys, and Davy Crocketts. He invites competitors to his sports store for a chat on how these can be built on a bicycle.

First prize in this decorated bicycle contest is a Lucas cycle dynamo set, value £4/4/-; second prize an open order for £2; third prize an open order for £1. Entry is free to the competition.

Tickets for the Stromberg Carlson Musiclock Radio, the red frangipani, ladies' dressing gown, and electric iron, jug, and toaster, may be obtained at "The Advocate" office. (Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Advocate, 18th April 1956, page 7).

BEROWRA FAIR TAKES OVER £300

The Berowra Scout movement should benefit by close on £300 as the result of the Fancy Fair held in the Old School grounds last Saturday.

The fair was well attended during the afternoon session, but the cold snap at night mitigated against the attendance in the evening, when the stalls, etc., were moved from the grounds into the buildings.

The fair was strongly supported by the Rotary Club of Hornsby, which organised the competitions and helped actively on the stalls, etc.

The committee set out to raise £300 towards the building of a local Scout Hall. Takings of the afternoon and evening exceeded this sum, and the net result is expected to be between £280 and £300.

Competition winners were: Wireless set, Mrs Weatherby of Brooklyn; electric toaster, Miss N Jones; dressing gown, Miss Geeves of Thornleigh; red frangipani, Miss Hillner; electric jug, Mr J Johnson of Normanhurst; and electric toaster, Mr Jack Donovan of Hornsby. (Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai Advocate, 22nd April 25 1956, page 3).

The fundraising of the £300 was the Rotary project for 1956 and Roy Corrigan had the task of overseeing its success. The money raised was used to finalise purchase of the land on which the hall stands. Mrs Lena Rhodes (Group Committee Treasurer) did a lot of work fund-raising for the building of the hall. The Hornsby Rotary Club donated the balance of the money necessary to meet the final payment on the property. Mrs Rhodes approached the former brick kilns at Thornleigh and obtained the clinkers used in the hall's foundations. A small corrugated iron structure about 5.4 m2 was built on the site by parents and friends of Scouts in Berowra amongst others Alan Cunningham, Bill Jackson, Hugh James, "Mac" McCredie, Reginald Rhodes, Harry Richardson, Jack Sullivan and Harry Terry under the supervision of Mr Peter Huett.

At that time the hall was at the end of a bush track leading from the water tower at the corner of Berowra Waters Road, before High Street as such ever existed, and access to the Scout Hall was restricted to foot or bicycle. Bill Whiddon, Scout Leader 1956-60, recalls that the hall lacked electricity or water and every boy had to carry water to the hall each meeting. The boys would meet at Bill's house before Troop meetings, light a Tilley pressure lantern and carry it to the hall so they could have light. The original hall was not very secure and all equipment was stored at Bill Whiddon's house. The original Scout Hall is now used by the Rovers as their den. In 1960 it was added to to provide room for the Scouts to hold meetings. Huey Taylor made the clear span metal trusses and columns for the extension to the hall and Peter Huett undertook to complete the second building stage of the hall. The inside lining was done on a voluntary basis by parents and friends of the Group. On 4 October 1968 Mrs Shannon (President of the Group Committee) wrote to Hornsby Council asking permission to have a septic tank installed at the hall. Based on the date of that letter, and a building permit 1480/68 dated 23 July 1968 for the extension, it is safe to assume the third addition, today's kitchen, toilets and Scout Leaders' den, was put on sometime between 1969 and 1971. A receipt for $108, dated 27 August 1973, from Frederick Clark Australia Pty Ltd for a stainless steel urinal is perhaps rather curious. It's hard to imagine a Scout holding on for five minutes let alone that many years!

In the late 1950s to 1960s the Group raised funds by having bottle collections. The first site for the bottle storage was on Bill Jackson's lawn, subsequently the site was moved to where the tennis courts next to the old Community Hall now stand. The Ladies Committee also made soup for sale on Cracker Nights and ran cake stalls each month. The police attended the Cracker Nights to keep order.

Another fund raising effort used in the past was to collect special coupons in response to messages given by a Sydney radio station. The object was to collect the most coupons etc associated with a particular item eg petrol, flour, butter wrappers, milk bottle tops etc. These were then awarded points and the winner received a money prize. The fund raising got messy at times, especially when the butter wrappers (some still with bits of butter on them) were collected on Saturday afternoons and laid out over the Kirk's lounge room floor for counting. The first competition was won by 1st Berowra Scout Group and the second competition was won by St Catherine's Home at Brooklyn. The amount of money won is not remembered but was a tidy sum.

Bill "Shih" Stevenson recalls that the Group again ran bottle drives for fund raising - one even on Dangar Island in 1972. One side of the Scout property was reserved for bottle collections. The bottles had to be sorted and stacked, and this took a lot of time. Bottle collections became a regular feature in the 1970s.

Until the mid-1980s brown stage curtains with two white stripes along the bottom (donated by Ron "Akela" Knights) separated today's Rover Den from the Scout Hall. You will notice that the Scout Hall is built lower to the ground than the Rover Den, this was done intentionally to provide the Scout Hall with a stage - hence the stage curtain. One of John Stavert's (Rover Adviser 1982-85) memories was the cleaning out of the "stage" (as it was known) to make it into the Rover's Den.

At a Lion's Gala Fireworks display held at Berowra Oval on 25 July 1975 the Group was invited to participate in the fund-raising stalls. The Group decided to run a Smash-a-thon. This consisted of a 1953 Morris Minor sedan which people could take to, for a fee, with a sledge hammer. By all accounts it was a very successful and popular event.

In 1979 a disused mess hut was purchased from the RAAF Williamstown Air Base. One of Peter Plumley's (Leader 1971-82) memories is that Neil Pickard MLA (local Member) had persuaded the Hornsby store, Keith Lord, to donate a refrigerator to the Group. After photos of the presentation had been taken Peter said jokingly to Neil and the others "That's great, but when do we get a new hall to wrap around it?" Peter relates the following story of how the hall was obtained: Within days, or so it seemed, David Stewart had been contacted by the Department of Administrative Services regarding a disused RAAF barracks hut at Williamstown Air Base. A very short time limit was set on the dismantling and removal of the hut in order for us to acquire it.

Consequently, with people taking time off work, very early one Friday morning two cars loaded with willing volunteers set off to Williamstown. Accommodation had been arranged free of charge on the base, which was very obliging of the RAAF. After settling in and changing into working clothes we set about dismantling the hut. It was a long hard day but very enjoyable. Saturday, by prearrangement, we were joined by other helpers. It turned out as a good family day, but the work continued. Several mums had come along to provide the workers with a hearty BBQ lunch. Those extra helpers who had agreed to stay over until Sunday meant our accommodation was somewhat crowded, it mattered not. "Hard Yakka" is hardly a strong enough expression to describe it, however we got the hut down and on its way to Berowra by Sunday afternoon. Another condition was that the site from which the hut had been removed should, in true Scouting fashion, be left clean and tidy. Chris Wight's large truck was very helpful in this.

I need hardly mention, but I will, a task of this magnitude involved meticulous planning to achieve our object. I am unable to recall everybody who took part in the weekend, obviously members of the Group Committee, however we must not forget the other dads and the Scouters who helped. They'll remember who they were, its hard to forget a weekend like that one.

It should be noted, that without the staunch help of the President of the Rotary Club of Berowra (Mr Alan Cunningham), himself a past Group President, and his club members, we would never have achieved our object that weekend. Rotary took it upon themselves to organise two cranes, one at each end and a semi-trailer to transport the hut. They also arranged for the bricks needed to bring the hut up to the level of the existing hall.

Within two or three weeks at most, work commenced on the brickwork. Rotary again came to our aid by arranging professional bricklayers and the brickwork was completed in a very short space of time. As soon as we were able, we set about getting the floor down. One dad fell quite some distance when the rest of the gang were underneath levering a section of the floor into place. Fortunately he sustained no serious injuries. Once the floor was down, the frame and struts were put up. There were very few Sundays at that time, that the same willing gang, working on a roster basis, were not at the hall doing everything possible towards the construction.

Due to problems with volunteer labour it was necessary, at a cost of $12,163, to employ Van Huisstenden and Wagshall Pty Ltd to complete the building. A loan was arranged to allow the purchase of materials required to complete the internal and external cladding. The cladding work was carried out by Berowra Rotary. When the extension was completed in late 1982, the Group gained much needed extra space to hold Section meetings. Dingo Pack had, up to that stage, been meeting in accommodation some distance from the Scout Hall. They were perhaps the unit to appreciate most the extra space provided.

The work involved in the building of the Cub Scout Hall was truly of epic proportions. The excavations and brick laying were very daunting, as an examination of the photos taken by David Cornford show. The bricks were carried from a kiln at Prospect and were sorted from thousands of broken bricks and seconds.

David Muir (Scout Leader 1975-86) remembers the spit roasted "pig" dinner to celebrate the completion of the Cub Scout Hall. The butcher undertook to par-boil a pig to speed the cooking process. The unfortunate thing is he forgot all about it once he put it on to boil. Some time later when he remembered, the pig was so overcooked it fell to pieces. Not to be outdone, he offered the Group a lamb's carcass and attached the pig's head to it. An aluminium foil collar was fitted to disguise the join. Apparently everyone said it was the skinniest pig they'd ever seen. To make up for the accident, the butcher threw in extra sausages and meat.

The most recent major change to the Scout Hall has been the excavation and earth levelling work at the rear of the hall. This has been undertaken in 1993/94 by Warren Scott as part of the work towards his Baden-Powell Award. He has worked very hard to achieve an enlarged level area which will be used for a camp site, camp fire circle and playing area. The costs associated with the project were funded by Warren through his own fund-raising efforts. The excavation work was carried out by R K Cooney & Son of Berowra for a nominal charge to Warren.