07/08/2024
Our District Badge
In 2008 the Glen Eira District Commissioner, Frank Moore, was asked to include the groups that had formerly been part of the Stonnington District into the Glen Eira District. In taking on this extended district it was decided that it was important that the history of Stonnington (and Glen Eira) was not lost. The District Commissioner directed that the two district names be concatenated instead of renaming the District or leaving the name as Glen Eira.
With this decision finalised and accepted at Branch Level, the District Commissioner then requested that the District Youth Forum of 2009 outline the design for a new District badge.
The requirements set by the Youth Forum were passed on to a Professional Designer (Michelle Cabrera), who created a number of options for the youth of the district to discuss. Once the badge options had been viewed by the members of the Glen Eira Stonnington District, a vote was held to decide on the badge we all now proudly wear on our uniforms.
The new District Badge was launched at the 2010 Glen Eira Stonnington Annual Reports and Presentations meeting. As part of the launch, one badge was given to every uniformed member within the Glen Eira Stonnington District.
What our Badge means:
• The Blue Border of the badge comes from the old Stonnington District Badge and the green hills represent the green background from the old Glen Eira District Badge.
• The Blue River represents the Yarra, which is one boundary of our District and the green hills represent the Dandenong Ranges which can be seen from the other border of our District. So our District sits between the Yarra River and the shadow of the Dandenongs.
• At the time of the formation of the Glen Eira Stonnington District, the district was responsible for the management of two campsites, Dallas Brooks Park, Upper Beaconsfield and G.W.S. Anderson Camp Site, Officer. Both of these campsites are nestled in the hills that abut our district borders. The campfire was originally on the Glen Eira badge representing the District Campsite, so this was kept for the new badge. By displaying the hills we proudly showed the scouting world that our district gave our youth the OUT in Scouting with the management of these campsites.
• Both the Glen Eira and Stonnington District Badges proudly showed the original scout symbol. The Youth Forum participants wished us to keep this history as we move into the future and asked that we keep this symbol and not use the new scouting logo.
• An aboriginal holding a spear was displayed on the original Stonnington Badge. This acknowledged the traditional owners of our land and where we are fortunate enough to be able to play our game of scouting. Again the forum asked for this important acknowledgement to be kept in some form when we designed our new badge. Hence the inclusion of the Spear and Boomerang which acknowledges the traditional owners of Glen Eira, Stonnington and Port Phillip.
• The Forum felt it was important to recognise that the occupants of the Glen Eira, Stonnington and Port Phillip cities have the unique advantage that they are serviced by all forms of public transport offered by the current Victorian Government, namely train, tram and bus. To represent this unique offering, a rail track crosses our District badge.
• As members of Glen Eira Stonnington we are proud to enjoy our scouting as Australians. The Glen Eira Badge included the Southern Cross, the star formation that looks down on us as we actively enjoy camping, hiking and all our other fun activities. The Forum felt this represented not only the Out we have in scouting but our pride in the country we live in. They asked that this be included on the new District Badge.
As can be seen, our District badge is more than just a badge that represents our District, it is a badge that shows what our District is about and what it means to our members.
