Geelong and Nauru’s close link forged by boy scouts
MORE memories of the past came flooding back just over a week ago when I attended the funeral of an old scouting mate, Don Rawson.
Last week I wrote about “Nasho” days sparked by Bernard Clancy’s play Foxholes of the Mind. It brought back memories of my time in national service that, as I mentioned, to me was like an extended scout camp because I never had to go to war.
My experience of the scouting movement began as an eight-year-old cub, through scouts and seniors and ended as cubmaster of Otway Forester Scout Group, at the Guild Hall in Myers St.
At the ripe old age of 18, in 1958, I had to give up all my extra-curricular activities — footy, basketball, scouts and Apex (the Apex club was a bit different back then to the more recent Melbourne group of the same name!) — to become a cadet journalist at this newspaper.
Don was one of a group of slightly older Geelong scouts. He was in the first group from Geelong sent to Nauru to reintroduce scouting to the island after World War II by the then county commissioner, the legendary Harold E. “Boss” Hurst.
It was “Boss” who forged the link between Geelong and Nauru in 1935, after meeting Nauruan scouts at a Frankston jamboree. I was one of six boys in the second group of post-war scouts to visit Nauru, in 1955.
In later years I spent many hours at Boss Hurst’s backyard factory, where he produced wool bale clips, and in the added accommodation upstairs with the Nauruan students he housed.
At around 21km sq, Nauru is the world’s second smallest state — the smallest is the Vatican — and about three decades ago was the second wealthiest per capita.
Independence began so well for Nauru in 1968, when Geelong- educated Hammer DeRoburt became the country’s first president.
The small island nation took over the assets of the British Phosphate Commission and said goodbye to the Australian government administration.
But, within three decades, through a mix of corruption, trusting the wrong people for investment advice and bad management, Nauru was broke.
It now relies on Australia, through its asylum seeker-refugee detention centre, to keep afloat financially.
When we were in Nauru it was a UN protectorate administered by Australia.
An extra link with Geelong was the fact that much of the fertiliser back then was exported to the Pivot Phosphate Co-op, now a part of Incitec Pivot, and the now extinct Cresco Fertilisers.
But, largely through Boss Hurst’s philanthropy, scouting and his commitment to the cause of Nauruan independence, there was a very special relationship between this community and the islanders. This was symbolised in the “Geelong-Nauru” scout badge every scout here and on the island wore with pride.
Most of my Nauruan friends have died, but I recognise old names among the present parliamentarians.
Anyway, getting back to Don Rawson’s funeral, it was great to see a number of Nauruans among those who came to pay tribute to a life well-lived.
While today’s Nauru is not the Nauru that Don and I knew in the 1950s and the links are not as close as they once were — with Nauruans now being educated elsewhere in Australia and in other countries — scouting remains and a group of Nauruan scouts visited Geelong only three years ago. So the links do remain.
But can Geelong again be an anchor for Nauru, even though the bonds today are not as strong as they were 60 years ago?
Nauruan independence opened the island to a wider world, eventual near bankruptcy and a new dependence on Australia through the detention centre.
My memories are of a friendly, hospitable people who were very thankful for the support they received from Geelong in so many ways. I hope they as people have not changed, despite their changed circumstances.