First King's Scouts in 73 years presented at Government House
Published Mon 24 Feb 2025
For the first time in more than seven decades, there are King’s Scouts in NSW.
The prestigious peak award for Venturer Scouts aged 14-17 was renamed from the Queen’s Scout Award in September (backdated to May), after His Majesty, King Charles III, confirmed his Patronage of the Scout Association of Australia.
Due to the overlap in time, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales and Chief Scout of NSW presented awards to 21 King’s Scouts, 11 Queen’s Scouts, and four Baden-Powell Scout Awards (for Rover Scouts, aged 18-25) at Government House in Sydney on Saturday.
KSA/QSA Honour Roll BPSA Honour Roll
The King’s Scout Award – the first in 73 years – aims to widen the interests and knowledge of Venturer Scouts by encouraging them to push their personal limits. It is the peak award for this age group, often taking three to four years to complete, and involves a broad range of activities requiring extensive pre-planning and determination. Designed to be challenging and encouraging, the award broadens the interests and knowledge of participating Venturer Scouts in leadership, resilience, goal setting and planning.
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To achieve it, a Venturer Scout must complete achievements across a broad range of disciplines, including Outdoor Adventure Skills (such as camping, hiking, paddling or abseiling), Special Interest Area projects (such as environment, STEM, arts and literature, community), leadership courses, as well as plan a significant, multi-day Adventurous Journey.
Chief Commissioner Lloyd Nurthen said: "I know from my own experience that the completion of a peak award at any age is a major milestone for a youth member. I received my Queen's Scout Award when I was a Venturer Scout.
“For our Scouts, a peak award is representative of so much more than just earning a uniform badge and a special certificate – they are a reflection of countless hours of personal development and contributions to the community."
Scouts NSW Deputy Chief Commissioner Niamh Hitchman said completing a peak award could be a life-changing experience.
“When we think about the very essence of the Scouting Movement, it’s our aim to provide young people with a safe platform to learn, to grow, and to develop into individuals we can all be proud of. It’s incredible to watch these teenagers challenge themselves beyond stereotypical limitations. They are hiking unaccompanied by adults in our national parks, stepping up into major leadership roles, learning how to conduct in-depth risk assessments – the list of their achievements is endless!”
King’s Scout Award recipients work independently and collectively to achieve great personal development and contribute positively to their communities. As such, the King’s Scout Award is highly regarded, with recipients qualifying for additional Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) adjustment factor points through some universities.
Rover Scouts challenge themselves to achieve peak awards
The Baden-Powell Scout Award (BPSA) is the peak award for the Rover Scout section (aged 18-25). Like the King’s Scout Award, the BPSA carries an outstanding reputation within Scouting and the community.
“Balancing the work required to achieve these awards with the competing demands of everyday life – whether that be taking the HSC, starting apprenticeships, or maintaining full-time working and family commitments – is an undertaking that cannot be understated,” Ms Hitchman said.
“My sincere congratulations to the recipients on their awards, and my thanks to those families, friends and Scouting members, who helped support them along the way.”
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Spotlight on our recipients
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Ellie Dickinson - 1st Woollahra/Paddington Venturer Scout Unit Ellie Dickinson was the first member of Scouts NSW to have completed all the requirements to achieve the KSA. She said it was cool, but “a bit ironic”, as her goal was to get it before it changed over so she could earn the same award as her grandfather Phillip Bates. “My grandfather was a Queen’s Scout and he was a Scout Leader in the United Kingdom,” she said. “My grandparents met at a fete run by his Scout Group. I thought that story was really cute, so I put on a fete at my Scout Group. I organised all the different age sections to run different stalls or activities. We walked the streets around the hall and put newsletters in everyone’s boxes, put up posters. We had a really good turnout. “We focused on the community around our Scout hall. It was all quite homemade – the activities were put together by the sections themselves. We had an evening at Scouts where we were all planting succulents to sell.” Below from left: Phillip Bates (right) and his brother John; Sue and Phillip Bates; Ellie Dickinson and 1st Woollahra/Paddington Scout Group at their fete |
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Stella Fuller-Simpson - Newcastle Rover Unit Newcastle Rover Scout Stella Fuller-Simpson, 24, completed a four-day journey that did not quite go to plan as part of her pathway to the Baden-Powell Scout Award. “What started out as a fairly organised hike through the Myall Lakes National Park certainly didn’t end that way!” she said. “On day two, we were walking down the road and then it suddenly went a bit quiet and when we turned around, we realised we were being followed by three dingoes. They weren’t aggressive, it looked like they just wanted to join the walk. “We decided to push through to a later campsite that day as we were making good time and when we went to set up our tents, this big gale-force wind came through and blew my tent away before I could put everything down. It was probably a kilometre away before it went over this hill. "I was running after it and I thought, ‘that’s it, my tent has gone’. But it had gotten stuck in some trees on the other side of the hill and wasn’t broken or anything!” Below from left: Stella Fuller-Simpson on her Adventurous Journey |
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Tynielle Gomez - 1st Byattunga Scout Group Tynielle Gomez, 18, combined her passion for medical science with the work required to achieve her King’s Scout Award. “In March 2023, when I was 16, I completed a week stay at the Macquarie University Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, learning from and working with Dr Paige Erpf, a research fellow on the global Yeast 2.0 project,” she said. “This project is a collaboration between scientists around the globe seeking a more productive, genetically engineered strain of yeast to use in biofuels and other bio-products. I learned how to run different trials on certain genetically modified cells. "We were growing cultures, running resistance tests on them and putting them into PCR machines to amplify the number of genes so we could reproduce them to run more tests and see if they were responding the way we expected them to.” Below: Tynielle Gomez working in lab supervised by Dr Paige Erpf (centre back) |
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Benard Kodsy - 1st Blaxland Scout Group Benard Kodsy's efforts to complete his four-day Adventurous Journey for his KSA showed the importance of being prepared for everything. “I had for my journey about 10 plans for anything that could go wrong,” he said. “The day of, we’re about an hour’s drive from our starting point, we check the map and all of a sudden it says there’s no way to get there. We went on live traffic to find out that earlier that morning the entry road leading to Tallawa Dam in the Kangaroo Valley had collapsed. We had to revert to a plan I wasn’t hoping for and ended up on Plan G.” Heavy rains prior to Benard’s “pack and paddle” journey at the beginning of 2024 damaged the road, as well as causing flooding and increased currents in the rivers the Patrol were canoeing along. “I learned it was good to have multiple plans and know what to do when things are headed the wrong way or turning bad,” Benard said. “It’s good to have a few other experienced people with you so you can bounce ideas off each other. But in the end, we did a lot of canoeing, a lot of hiking, walked into the local towns. It was an experience and a half to have things go bad – you learn from it.” |
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Caitlin Mackenzie - 3rd Orange Scout Group Caitlin Mackenzie, 18, completed a four-day canoe trip from Wellington to Dubbo as part of her endeavours to achieve her KSA. “I chose to do a canoe trip because I had done a hike for my Grey Wolf Award (Cub Scout peak award) and a bike journey for my Australian Scout Award (Scout peak award), and I wanted to do something different and challenging,” she said. “Claire, Jasmine, Georgia, Flynn, Balian and Kaleb are all from 3rd Orange Scout Group and came with me because I have known them all for a long time and felt like we could make a good team. Seb from 2nd Orange Scout Group was invited after another Patrol member couldn’t attend because of an injury and I felt like Seb would get along with everyone else attending. “My Adventurous Journey began in Wellington. The first night we camped at Ponto Falls, the second just downstream from Brilbral Reserve, the third at Butlers Falls before finishing in Dubbo. “We had some memorable stops, including afternoon tea at a slide someone had put on the riverbank, and several rope swings throughout the second and third days. “We were all surprised at how physically challenging it was, but also how boring it could be at times. We were also shocked about the amount of rubbish in the river – one of the items we found was an inflatable turtle, which we adopted as our mascot for the remainder of the journey. We collected as much rubbish as possible and put it in the bins at our overnight stops." Bottom left: Cailtin Mackenzie (left) with her Patrol |
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Lachlan Mayne - 1st Hurstville Venturer Scout Unit Lachlan Mayne combined his experiences striving towards his KSA with his Duke of Edinburgh Award opportunities, including volunteering with The Reconnect Project – a charity that partners with social service organisations to give refurbished technology to people in need. “I figured it would be a great opportunity to develop my skills in technology hardware, as it’s something I was aiming to do in university,” he said. “What I found is that almost all technology can be used by someone, especially mobile technology and internet-accessible devices, as this is what The Reconnect Project specialises in. “I got to repair a couple of MacBooks while I was there, and I was surprised to learn how strong the adhesive is on their batteries. I ended up having to think outside the box and use a spare membership card to help lever the battery off the adhesive so I could apply adhesive removal.” Below: Lachlan Mayne repaired a MacBook with a puffed up battery |
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Erika Otero - Yaralla Rover Unit Erika Otero emigrated from Colombia nine years ago where she started Scouting. She said as a Spanish speaker, she has met a lot of people in the community with the same problem. She decided to turn the solution to that problem into a project for her BPSA. “There was a constant question of not knowing how to do tax or where to find information for superannuation or how to navigate the system,” she said. “I realised there were resources out there, but people didn’t know how to find it all in their language. So I created a blog for the Spanish speakers in Australia that includes contact lists for doctors that speak Spanish, tax services, and what your obligations and rights are while living in Australia. So many people don’t know where they stand, where to ask for help or what they’re entitled to – like getting an interpreter.” Below left and centre: Erika Otero at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea in 2023 |
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Scott Romanis - 2nd/3rd Pennant Hills Scout Group Scott Romanis, or ScoRo as he is fondly known across Scouts NSW, turned his enjoyment for content creation into an achievement pathway for his Queen’s Scout Award, and in doing so has had more unique opportunities than he was expecting. “I got to interview Chandler Powell at Australia Zoo as part of the recent Australian Jamboree in Maryborough, Queensland,” he said. “He was a really cool guy to chat to beforehand. I was amazed because I’ve never interviewed someone who was media trained. I would ask a question and he was just spot on, bang, and spoke for a minute or two, whereas I would normally have to fill in for the people I interview. “We also did three livestreams during the 10 days, which was a different process as, because it’s live, you can’t change anything that happens to you. I was the roving reporter, so needed to find groups of kids prior, tell them what I was going to say and make sure they have an answer, plus do filler work. It’s really strange to keep eye contact with the camera – you’re just looking at a glass circle.” Below: Scott Romanis volunteered on the media team for the Australian Jamboree 2025, interviewing Chandler Powell at Australia Zoo (bottom left) |
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Tim Ryan - 1st Dulwich Hill (Dame Dixon's Own) Rover Unit Tim Ryan created a project based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to help teach younger Scouts how to determine the overall health of a waterway based on the existing insect population. “I wanted to see the range of aquatic insects that live in the waterway of Camp Coutts (in Waterfall). Having grown up in Scouts and been at the camp many times over the years, I hadn’t really considered what insects (if any) lived in the waterways around the camp,” he said. “Based on my own testing and that of the youth members that participated in the initial activity during our Region Camp in 2023, there were quite a few insects in the waterway that are sensitive to pollution, indicating the waterway was fairly healthy and free of contamination. "A few Patrols later in the day found different insects, and some of the Joey Scouts were able to catch tadpoles, which I didn’t anticipate! I also created the activity in such a way that other Leaders can replicate it in other locations.” |
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Lachlan Scott - Georges River Venturer Scout Unit Lachlan Scott, who is on the autism spectrum and has muscular dystrophy, needed more determination than most to complete his four-day Adventurous Journey. “I struggle with carrying the weight of my pack, so my Patrol members helped carry it for me,” he said. “I also knew a four-day hike wouldn’t be feasible, so I combined my love of public transport and hiking to plan and undertake a journey that combined both.” Using trains and buses, the Patrol travelled from Mortdale to Gerringong, then onto Mt Victoria, before heading to Kariong Scout Camp and returning home the fourth day. “We had to make changes throughout the trip – heavy rain the week before meant Werri Lagoon at Gerringong was open to the sea and we were advised not to cross the sand spit, so we were going to walk from Minnamurra to Kiama,” he said "But on the day, we had to change again due to buses replacing trains, meaning we couldn’t do the full hike or we would have missed our connecting bus. “On the final day, there was rain overnight so we got very wet walking through the dense scrub between Kariong Scout Camp and Kariong. So we decided to take the faster way home and catch the train from Gosford instead of going via the Ettalong ferry.” Below from left: Lachlan Scott learns about footwells for putting boots on in the snow; members of Kirrawee Gang Show visit Hornsby Gang Show; Lachlan with his Patrol at Mortdale Station |
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James Williams - 1st Telarah Scout Group For James Williams, 18, achieving his Queen’s Scout Award was a way to honour the memory of his mum Robin. “I remember when I was seven, I used to do karate or something like that,” he said. “I remember not liking it, to put it bluntly. My mum was working as a canteen helper at school and heard from a friend about Scouts. She said, ‘sounds fine, we’ll sign him up’. That was 11 years ago. “She supported me the whole way. Six weeks into Scouts, I was hesitant to go to my first camp, so she signed up as a parent helper to support me and make sure I was OK. She also never turned back since – she moved up to Group Leader at 1st Telarah. She was essentially the heart and soul of our Group. “She unexpectedly passed away in the middle of 2023. She wanted me to get my Queen’s Scout, and I didn’t know if it would be possible for me to, because I wanted to focus on school. That day (when she passed), I decided I would achieve it no matter what to honour her.” “I feel like the theme I tried to run with for my QSA projects was to try to give back in ways I thought would be important to my mum. “My Special Interest Area project was contacting Bunnings and organising a barbecue from the ground up so we could send one of our Scouts to the New Zealand Jamboree. There was also a street library for the hall to encourage reading – she was a teacher and valued reading.” Bottom centre: The street library James Williams created as an SIA project in memory of his mum Robin |
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