Scouting for funds

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
A HALL in disrepair with no kitchen, storage area, or hand-washing facilities is the lot of Scouts and Guides at Yarra Junction.
The lack of facilities and poor conditions at the Yarra Junction Scout hall is causing Scouts and Guides to drop out of the local organisations and look elsewhere for extracurricular activities.
Despite fundraising about $30,000 from the community, the hall still needs thousands of dollars to be rebuilt and made safe for leaders and children.
The passionate leaders say they have had no support, help or acknowledgement of the problems from the organisations’ head offices, but have vowed to fight to keep the local groups going for the sake of the community.
Yarra Junction Guide leader Janice Elliot said they needed a better facility that could be used by more people in the community.
“We’re looking at trying to build a bigger hall with better storage on the same space, but it’s quite restricting for activities when you’re right on the highway,” she said.
“If we had better facilities, we could hire them out to more people.”
Ms Elliot said there were no storage facilities and nothing was kept onsite because of bush rats that have made an appearance several times in the last year.
“I said I wasn’t going to sleep there anymore, it’s just not healthy and it’s not secure,” she said.
Yarra Junction Scouts group leader Linda MacLennan said there had been no funding to improve the building in the 18 years she had volunteered as a leader.
She said they had made the hall as safe as they could, but wanted a longer lease, for example 21 years, from the council if the Scouts were to invest on the land.
“We want to know (whether) it’s worthwhile to make changes and spend money,” she said.
“If we’re to spend $30,000 for a five-year lease and then they say sorry you can’t have it and kick us out it wouldn’t be worth it.”
The hall was brought from the Upper Yarra dam in 1978 to the current site on Warburton Highway in Yarra Junction, and has been used by the Scouts since that time while the Girl Guides started using the hall eight years ago.
The Scouts recently bought a stove, but found the 1950s building required rewiring which couldn’t be done due to asbestos in the walls.
The council has indicated that there is no other piece of land that could be built on in Yarra Junction, and they could only rebuild using the existing building’s footprint.
The leaders, who volunteer their time, say they only want the best for the children involved in the organisations.
“Kids get so much out of this, friendship, and self-esteem,” Ms MacLennan said.
“We’ve got these kids participating, whose school work has gone up from the support and motivation of the leaders.
“I’m refusing to let Yarra Junction close, as a group I feel we need to keep our fees down because of the area we’re in, but we would be just keeping our head above water.”
Both leaders say they have told their respective organisations about the situation, and want help to make the hall safe, usable and beneficial to the community, but neither Girl Guides Victoria nor Scouts Victoria responded to The Mail’s questions in time for print.