USTRALIA, abode of the native Aborigines and their famous Dreamtime
(according to their culture, all Aborigines originated from there); Ned
Kelly, the notorious bush ranger and not forgetting the ever amiable
marsupials, the koalas and kangaroos. Home to the Sydney Tower, Opera
House and Olympics 2000. Land of vast wastelands, rich geographical history,
black swans, the world renowned Ayers Rock and the colourful Great Barrier
Reef. The largest island-continent on Earth. And in one remote corner on
the south-western coastline of this multi-racial nation lies the humble
settings of the serene city of Perth.
Welcome aboard the Alpha Centauri Express, ladies and gentlemen, and G’day to each of you. Throughout this passage, I, Loh Kok Kin, will be your guide as we journey with 11 VSGians through an experience of high adventure and wild excitement Down Under - the 15th Asia-Pacific/ 17th Australian Jamboree at the Perry Lakes Reserve in Perth, Western Australia, from 30 December 1994 to 8 January 1995. The eleven VSGians are Siow Steve, Victor Tan Seng Lee, Yap Wing Hoe, Benjamin Liew Chee Hoong, Andrew Chung Ning Sern, Kong Mun Meng, Chow Fui Foo, Allan Yap Chen Wah, Jason Sirimanne, Chong Wei Onn and yours truly. I hope you enjoy this ride with us.
As an introduction to our tour, we shall firstly look at the pre-Jamboree happenings throughout 1994. It all began in December 1993 when the Senior troop voiced its eagerness to attend an International Jamboree. Then we had two options: one was a Jamboree in Denmark and the other the 15th Asia-Pacific/ 17th Australian Jamboree in Perth. Almost unanimously, we chose the latter due to its prestige and status. Besides us, no one else in Malaysia was then interested in this Jamboree. By January 1994, our trop was fully committed and resolved to make an appearance. ADC Lionel Sia Wai Seng of Batu district then agreed to help in our preparations though his participation in the Jamboree was uncertain. Anyway, we started planning and I became the troop Jamboree secretary (which explains why I am writing this report!). About five meetings were held from January to April.
In May, Chong Hwa Independent Secondary School joined us after obtaining permission from their Headmaster, together with a few Johor schools. Though initially we had made bookings with Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian Scout Federation decided that we were to fly Qantas for the convenience of the Johor participants. Bookings for badges and souvenirs were made, besides filling in application forms for participation in the Jamboree. Payments were made in installments.
On 27 August, the entire contingent met for the first time in a contingent meeting held at Jalan Davidson Chinese Primary School. Here, we elected a contingent committee where Chow Fui Foo and I were chosen to be National Treasurer and Secretary respectively. Other matters relating to the Jamboree were also discussed including Jamboree duties and activities. Our second contingent meeting was on 26 November at St John’s Institution, but this was actually a Kuala Lumpur section meeting where we discussed matters of importance to our section. This was the last contingent meeting though there were a few other minor meetings in December.
And so........Land of Kangaroos and Koalas, here we come!
In the next part of our tour, dear readers, we shall be witnessing our pre-Jamboree stay in Perth. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. On Friday 23 December, we, the representatives of the Victoria Scout Group, gathered at the Subang International Airport together with the rest of the Malaysian contingent. After bags were checked in, boarding passes processed, passports stamped and goodbyes wished, we took off at approximately 1720 hrs. We transitted in Singapore for about 3 hours after which Qantas airlines flew us to our destination, Perth. Our arrival (at 0300 hrs) was greeted by three Aussie Jamboree officials. Then we went to the Noalimba Accommodation Centre, our lodging for the next 5 days. Breakfast and dinner were eaten at Noalimba every day. Food? We had great variety from toast, continental buns, frankfurters and spaghetti to bacon, salad, steak, ice-cream and chocolate mousse as well as fruit juices.
Every day was filled with visits and tours (for instance, to Booragoon suburb and Perth city), except for Christmas day. On that day (and each evening every other day), we strolled around Noalimba grounds, snapped photos, played football and basketball, watched television, chatted and slept, besides attending contingent meetings and dealing with daily duties of cleaning up. This period of time was most essential as we got to know one another closer, hence creating a friendly Malaysian contingent. Also, it was a period of adaptation to Australia - weather-wise, culture-wise and not forgetting, slang-wise too! The following is a list of our visits and tours during this pre-Jamboree period:
24/12: Booragoon Shopping Mall
26/12: Adventure World Theme Park
27/12: Fremantle Prison, Fremantle Fort, Fremantle City, Cottesloe beach and Monga Lake (where we fed Black Swans)
28/12: Baden-Powell House, Scout Museum, Perth City, Yanchep National Park
We usually spent a full day on these activities. The cost you ask? Well, rather exorbitant, though it was worthwhile as we enjoyed ourselves to the hilt.
On 29 December, after we had had our breakfast, briskly cleaned our rooms and promptly checked out of Noalimba after numerous photographs (between the 11 of us, we probably had almost 100 rolls of film!), we headed for Perry Lakes at 1130 hrs. Before that, we were divided into six patrols of six, and Steve, Victor and I were selected to be patrol leaders. Upon arrival at the Jamboree site, we were captured in astonishment by an amazing display of erected tents and a frenzy of boys and girls with Jamboree scarves and hats. Yes, ladies and gentlemen (you readers of this report), the Alpha Centauri Express has not moved on and our stage of the ride at present is the Jamboree itself. We settled into our campsite number 415 in subcamp 400: Moonbase.
Lunch was eaten at the sub-camp mess tent, just a hundred metres away to the right of our campsite. Sandwiches, fruit and Jamboree Juice (a special mixture of juices specially concocted for this Jamboree. There was Lime, Raspberry, Orange and Mineral Water). Immediately after, we returned to our campsite and started building our hikers’ tents and other gadgets (like a modern sheltered camp kitchen equipped with gas stoves, teppanyaki pan, tables, benches, ice boxes and huge crates for storing utensils and food! What a stark contrast compared to our conventional spartan troop traditions of an altar fire and racks). Glancing around us, we saw huge containers (carrying the camping equipment of other Aussie troops), towering archways and of course, conspicuous blue caps, our official Jamboree caps which were compulsory to be worn to avoid sunstroke. In the evening, after we had completed our work, we socialised with visitors at our campsite while some of us went for a refreshing bath at the ‘ready and proper’ toilets (with taps, basins, showers, urinals and the like). After a rather satisfying dinner of meat pies, with eager hearts we roamed our vicinity as well as visited the sub-camp arena to watch the performances. It was quite an uneventful night and we slumbered off at approximately 2315 hrs.
Dawn broke at about 0400 hrs but we only managed to get on our feet at 0530 hrs, after which we darted to the washrooms to refresh ourselves (and to beat the queues!). Everyone was feeling extremely excited as this was the official first day of the Jamboree. Steve’s patrol was on duty and hence prepared breakfast for us. The patrol on duty had to cook meals and clean the campsite. They also had to remain on the Jamboree site during the day while other patrols attended off-site activities. Besides that, one member of the patrol had always to be around to welcome visitors and look after the site. Anyway, immediately after breakfast, the rest of us scattered around Perry Lakes for swapping activities. We swapped anything ranging from badges, scarves, shirts, wallets, hat pins, belt badges..... the list is endless.....
So ladies and gentlemen, any questions so far? Nothing? Fine....We practically spent the entire day roaming the Jamboree site except for the occasional ‘check in’ at base HQ for lunch as well as to ‘restock and unload’ our souvenirs. Our favourite swap items for the first day were contingent badges as well as back patches. In the evening, after dinner and after washing up, we paraded smartly with the Malaysian flag ahead, to the Main Arena, about a 20 minute walk from our campsite, for the opening ceremony. By the way, the size of the Jamboree site is about the size of the Lake Gardens in KL. The official opening, which began at 2000 hrs, was superbly organised. 12,000 scouts from all parts of Asia-Pacific had come in one spirit - the spirit of scouting - through this great Jamboree. There was the speech by Alpha Centauri (the Jamboree mascot, which looked like a star, but which wore a scout hat and scarf), the officiation by Sir John Young (Australian Chief Scout), the lighting of the Jamboree flame and the endearing rendition of the song ‘I Am Australian’. Incidentally, the ceremony was graced by a shooting star which flared across the dark heavens like a portent of delight from the cosmos (for many of us, it was our first sighting of a shooting star). With that, the Jamboree was officially open. So let the fun begin!
The next few days were full of fun-filled activities, both on-site and off-site. Off site activities were activities held outside Perry Lakes and each morning we had to catch an allocated bus to a particular destination. These off-site activities were specially planned by the Jamboree Council and each patrol spent different day at different activities except for one, which was the patrol on duty (we took turns for this of course). The five kinds of off-site activities were called Bushcraft, Water Activities, High Adventure, Cities’ Discovery Tour and Scout-Out. Bushcraft was held at Manjedal National Park and it included a low ropes course, labyrinth, orienteering, BMX track, pioneering, aerial runway, target shooting and rafting. Water Activities were held on the Swan River and Cockburn Sound. Activities included sailing, rafting, water games, canoeing and dragon boat racing. Meanwhile, High Adventure provided horse riding, bush tucker, swimming, a visit to the Yanchep Caves, flying (in a plane over the Jamboree site), the aviation museum and mini golf. The Discovery Tour brought us to Perth and Fremantle City with a ferry trip along the Swan River. Scout-Out included visits to Whiteman Park, the Omnitheatre, Sci-Tech Centre, Water Playground, roller skating and the Perth Zoo.
Meanwhile, the patrols on duty were not left to boredom either. Besides cooking, looking after the campsite and swapping, patrols on duty had an immeasurable variety of on-site activities like abseiling, obstacle courses, mental gymnastics, Kaleidoscope (a Venturer/ Senior Scout exhibition), aquatic adventures, quizzes, amateur ham radio and much more. A day would begin at 0530 hrs, starting with breakfast before we freely head off to those activities. We would return by 1700 hrs and this would be followed by an hour of swapping, washing up and dinner. At night, we usually roamed the site, did some swapping, looked up friends from other contingents and watched sub-camp performances, before returning to our campsite for contingent and patrol leader meetings. We usually slumbered off at 0030 hrs after long chats about the day’s experience.
The Jamboree, besides being about the exhausting
routine of activities mentioned above, also had lots of surprises
and fun
extraordinaire in store for us. As an international contingent,
we received a lot of invitations for Friendship Meals (where
patrols invite other patrols to their campsite for meals) during
many lunches and dinners. Back at our camp, food was not bad
either as there was a different menu every day – beet root,
sausages, beef, steak, corn, apples, oranges, pears, bread,
jam, honey, cabbage, corn flakes, potatoes, peaches, yogurt,
ice-cream.......There was so much that we could never finish
the rations allocated to us each day. During the International
Night at the Main Arena, where every national contingent had to
stage a performance, our contingent performed a marvellous English
version of ‘dikir barat’, where the lyrics were written by our
contingent, particular by our own VSGians. The song was an
introduction to Malaysia for those who did not know about our
country. We sang of festivals, religions, races, languages and
culture.
On the last day of the Jamboree, we were invited to a gathering of international contingents at the sub-camp 300 mess tent. There we grabbed the opportunity to socialise with scouts from countries like Kenya, Tanzania, USA, UK, Japan, Mongolia, Denmark, Fiji and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Steve and I were invited to the National Youth Forum held biennially. There we discussed matters relevant to the youth of today as well as steps to enhance enthusiasm in the scouting movement. On the same day too, we had a lavish lunch of emu, buffalo, kangaroo meat and fruit juices. At night, once again we headed to the Main Arena for the official closing of this thrilling ten day Jamboree. Besides the speeches, handing over of the flag and the extinguishing of the Jamboree flame; it was Alpha Centauri’s speech and the rendition of ‘I Am Australian’ that strongly evoked the emotions of the 12,000 participants. We swayed hands and echoed the lyrics of the song in unison with the Perth Gang Shows Group. And that was the official end of the 15th Asia-Pacific/ 17th Australian Jamboree.
Please remain seated, ladies and gentlemen, as we now proceed to the final phase of our ride. The morning after the closing ceremony, after getting up at 0500 hrs, we had breakfast and prepared to break camp. The campsite was hastily cleaned, bags were packed, tents dismantled and equipment tucked away. Then we snapped a few contingent photos as well as a few photos of our troop members. We then proceeded to the gate near the Main Arena after getting clearance from a Jamboree officer who inspected our campsite. Two by two, we left with our foster parents with whom we were to stay for the next 2 days, under the Jamboree home hospitality programme. So it was farewell to Perry Lakes as we left nothing but thanks and took nothing but memories. Our foster parents were most hospitable to us. Besides cooking delicious meals and providing comfortable bedding, they took time off to take us sightseeing. It was also time for relaxation after a hectic Jamboree.
On 11 January 1995, we assembled at the Perth International Airport at 0530 hrs for our flight home. A few of us scuttled around for last minute souvenirs, but due to the lack of time, most were disappointed. We boarded our plane, which departed at 0840 hrs. After a 4 1/2 hour flight, we transitted in Singapore where we spent six hours shopping, eating and sightseeing (we joined a free City Tour to pass time). Finally we boarded our plane at 2000 hrs and arrived at Subang International Airport, 45 minutes later. We were greeted by our excited families and after a few photos, we returned to our home sweet homes, knowing full well that the memories of this unforgettable twenty-day adventure Down Under for the 15th Asia-Pacific/ 17th Australian Jamboree, which we spent with our closest friends, will never fade from our hearts. With that, dear readers, we come to our journey’s end.
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