| DINGO PACK |
Dingo Pack started operating on 29 April 1982 with 15 Cub Scouts and 4 transfers (Ben-Franz Liquete, Paul Duff, Anthony Jones and Stewart Crake) from Koala Pack. It was however not until August 1982 that it was registered, with Jean Bray as Akela, and Wendy "Kim" Abel, Adele "Raksha" Ahearn, and Alan "Kaa" Turner as Assistant Cub Scout Leaders in training. The first investitures, 15 Cub Scouts and 3 Leaders took place on 17 June 1982. It was followed by a sausage sizzle. Also in attendance were Mrs Jan Cattling (District Leader), Mrs Clemency McRae (District Cub Scout Leader), Harold "Pirate" Morgan (Group Leader) and John "Shere Khan" Stephens who had been very much a driving force in setting up the Pack. The day was special for Adele "Raksha" Ahearn as she renewed her promise before the Pack (she had previously been a Leader in New Zealand) and her son Carl was invested. At that time the Group had 83 Cub Scouts in 3 Packs, 57 Scouts in 2 Troops, 9 Venturers and 3 Rover Scouts. There were 11 Pack Leaders, 6 Troop Leaders, 1 Venturer Unit Leader and 1 Rover Scout Crew Leader. The Pack originally met on Thursdays between 7.00pm and 8.30pm. Later, when Kangaroo Pack closed, the meetings were transferred to Monday nights. In 1982 the hall consisted of today's Scout Hall and Rover Den - the section now used by Cub Scouts was not added until later. Because there was no room for Dingo Pack to meet at the hall, the former Hall's Bakery site at 8 Berowra Waters Road (now Berowra Car Care) was used. The fumes from the car repair shop underneath these temporary premises finally became intolerable, and the Pack was fortunate in being allowed to use the Guide Hall until extra space (the current Cub Scouts' Hall) was added to the Scout Hall. At some Cub Scout Pack holidays it was traditional for the Cubs to write an account of their experiences. Some stories show great insight into how a boy of Cub Scout age thinks. They also show why Leaders go straight to heaven when they die. In order not to embarrass the Cub Scout, the name of the author of the following shortened account is omitted. On Friday 11 March 1983 Dingo Pack went to Warragamba Dam. Most Cubs went in the little bus with Mr Bray driving. We left Berowra at 7.00pm and arrived at Warragamba Dam about 9.00pm. We unloaded the bus and made up our beds and had some cocoa. I was in a little room with 3 New Chums and we had a little talk. About 3.00am Akela took me out of the room to sleep with Baloo and let William, Jon and David get to sleep. Most of us got up about 5.00am and ran along the verandah to wake up everybody else. We then had a water fight and wet Mrs Murphy, Akela and all the Cubs. We had breakfast of orange juice, rice bubbles and toast. We then went on a scavenger hunt to find a piece of paper with our name on it and a lolly. After this we had a game of cricket and then lunch - toast, sandwiches and cake. After lunch we had relay races in the park and then made craft. We went down to the dam wall in the bus. The dam was short of water and what was there was all green. ... We then had tea - yucky food. We went to bed about 9.00pm and got up at 6.00am to run along the verandah to wake everybody up. ... After lunch we went to the pool and threw Dean, Miss Muphett (Nicole Murphy) and Akela into the pool, then I got thrown in. We then had a lynch test - who can sit the longest on Kaa and Baloo. Jean Bray (Cub Scout Leader 1980-88) spent a great deal of time with the Cub Scouts and took them on many outings and extended Pack holidays (usually lasting 5 days) to such places as Canberra, Bonney Hills, and Dubbo. The first 5-day camp was to Canberra. Jean had been sick and had been advised not to go. She cancelled the holiday, but re-booked it half and hour later because she couldn't stand the disappointment of the Cubs. The Leaders put on a special dinner for the Cubs and parents with a "Star Wars" theme. On that holiday David Cocks lost his Cub Scout cap in Lake Burley Griffin (he did it again on the Bonney Hills camp). Some of the Cubs got chicken pox on the camp, so the first meeting after the camp had to be cancelled. The second 5-day camp was to Bonney Hills near Port Macquarie where the Pack stayed in a Uniting Church camp site. It had been raining for a while before this camp and for some time after it, but for the 5-days of the camp the weather was marvellous. The Cubs were taken to Wauchope, the observatory and the (now demolished) Dolphin Pool at Port Macquarie etc. Perhaps the thing to make this camp memorable was that the Cubs went paddling in their shoes. In an attempt to dry them the adults stoked the boiler and put the shoes in the boiler room. Because they didn't bleed the boiler the pressure became too great and the pipes burst and leaked all over the dining tables. The third 5-day camp was to Dubbo where the Pack stayed at the NSW Department of Education Centre. There were plenty of rooms, campfire area, barbecue area, and even a netball court to share with the sheep. They visited a farm, Dubbo Zoo and the Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Parkes. Another memorable Pack Holiday Dingo Pack had was to Mt Seaview, near Port Macquarie during the week 24th - 29th September 1990. The boys really enjoyed themselves with water slides (buckets of water carried from the river by the Cubs and poured down lengths of thick plastic sheeting), four-wheel drives around the district, a visit to a weather station on the property, sleeping in the bunkhouse, a visit to Timbertown at Wauchope, horse riding etc. The accommodation was very basic and someone had to keep remembering to keep a wood fire lit under the hot water tank so we could have warm showers. The boys as usual, were hard to get to bed on the first night of the camp, but as the week wore on they were easier and easier to get to sleep. On the last night or two they went to bed without the Leaders even having to suggest it. The boys at that camp were: Peter Anderson, Benjamin Crowther, Christopher Leuenberger, Christopher Boyle, Benjamin Dreyer, Aaron Ransom, Patrick Boyle, Kurt Englebrecht Glen Stewart, Christopher Brown, Joel Farr, Graham Whitaker, Stuart Clark Cameron Forsyth The Leaders were Nerida "Akela" O'Neil and Phillip "Nathoo" Boyle. The cooks and helpers were Les "Rama" Brown, Helen Brown, Marion Dreyer, Philip Dreyer, Robert Farr and John Anderson. In addition the following non-Cubs also attended the camp Douglas Anderson, Anthony Boyle, Lyndal Brown, Stephen Brown, Jamie Dreyer and April O'Neil. Akelas of Dingo Pack have been Jean Bray, Nerida O'Neil, Phillip Boyle and Marion Dreyer. |