The Gold Boomerang

If you join Cub Scouts around 10 years of age, you will probably start your journey through the Cub Scout Award Scheme with the Gold Boomerang.  However, if you joined earlier you would probably have completed both your Bronze and Silver Boomerangs, and would now be entering the third part of the Boomerang Award - the Gold Boomerang.  The Gold Boomerang is the last of the three Boomerangs.

The tasks in this part of the award are more challenging but build on the skills you have already learned.  To achieve this badge, you will need to complete 10 out of the 14 tasks.  Tasks 1 to 7 must be completed but you can choose any three from the tasks numbered 8 to 14.  Tasks may be done in any order, except for number 7 "Promise and Law", which must be completed last and signed off by your Cub Scout Leader.

Personal health

• Discuss personal hygiene such as showering/bathing regularly, changing clothes and using deoderants.
• Show you understand the different types of foods that will build a healthy body by preparing a menu for one day at camp.

Basic First Aid

• Check and replenish or put together a simple first aid kit and take it on bushwalks and outings with you.
• Tie a sling with a reef knot.
• Show how to treat burns and scalds.
• Show how to treat bleeding.
• Explain what to do in the case of fainting.

Infections

• Show an understanding of what can happen if you eat food that has not been stored correctly.
• Discuss the ways to store food appropriately.

Adult Help

• Explain why you need adult help in case of accidents.
• Pass a message, including an address, numbers and details of an accident, from one adult to another.
• Explain how to use a mobile phone and a public phone and discuss the steps you would take to make an emergency phone call.

Buddy System

• Explain the Buddy System and teach it to a younger Cub Scout.

Home

• Discuss the dangers of poisons at home.
• Discuss what to do at home in the case of an electrical storm.

Road

• Demonstrate the safety rules you need to consider when riding a bike, scooter, skateboard or roller blading.  Show you can use this equipment safely.

Water

• Show three methods you could use to help somone who fell into deep water and could not swim.

Bush

• Explain what to do to make sure you don't get lost in the bush and what to do if something goes wrong.
• Discuss the dangers in the bush that are appropriate to your area, e.g. weather, terrain, and poisonous creatures.

Fire

• Discuss ways to reduce the dangers that cause fires in the home and the bush.

Personal

• Discuss what to do if you do not feel safe when with a particular person.

Tying Knots

• Tie a bowline.
• Tie a sheetbend.
• Tie a clove hitch.
• Tie a reefknot.
• Make a gadget using at least one type of appropriate lashing.
• Teach another Cub Scout how to tie a reef knot.

Use of Knots

• Discuss how and when to use these knots.

Care of Ropes

• Show how to hank or chain a rope correctly.

Compass and Navigation

• Use a compass to plan a bushwalk route on a map.
• Use a compass to set a simple trail, including six compass points, for the rest of your pack to follow.
• Discuss the eight principal points and the associated degrees.

Maps and Hiking

• Explain scale and contour lines.
• Explain at least eight map symbols and be able to find them on the map.
• Using at least five different trail signs, make a track for the rest of your Pack to follow.

Fire Lighting

• Explain about different types of cooking fires and demonstrate at least one.

Outdoor Cooking

The Jungle Books

• Explain how the laws and teachings in The Jungle Books are part of your life and your Pack's attitudes.

Scouting History

• Explain how Scouting began and talk to your Leader about it.
• Draw the World Scout Badge and describe the meaning of this.
• Find out when and where the next Australian Jamboree will be held.

Flags

• Teach another Cub Scout to roll, hoist and break the Australian Flag in the correct manner.
• Show an understanding of the different ways of flying the flag, e.g. mourning, distress etc.

Emblems

• Reproduce the Australian Coat of Arms and explain the meaning of each emblem.

Flora and Fauna

• Name and describe the floral emblem of Australia and explain why it was chosen.

Duty to Your God

• Help to plan and participate in a Scouts' Own.

Promise and Law

• Discuss with a Leader about how you try to put your Promise and Law into practice in everything you do.
• Explain the Promise and Law to a new Cub Scout when you are talking to them about being a Cub Scout.

Service

• Do a good turn by helping plan, and take part in, an activity which will assist an organisation that helps other people, and tell your Leader about it.

Ball Skills

• Kick a goal with either a place or drop kick, or, shoot a goal with a basketball or netball.
• Throw a ball over a distance of 20 metres to someone and catch it on return six times over a distance of 15 metres.

Athletic Skills

• Perform a hop, step and jump as far as you can.

Strength and Stamina

• Skip continuously for two minutes.

Indigenous Australians

• Visit a local site where you can learn more about the traditional owners of your area.

International Cultures

• Find out about another country.
• Show where it is on the map in relation to Australia and discover how the people live, what they eat and the clothes they wear.

Scouting

• Find out about Scouting in another country - the name of the Sections, whether boys and girls can be Cub Scouts, and something about their badges.
• Take part in an overnight activity organised at District, Region or Branch level.

Cub Scouts will be required to do any two of the following.

Biology

• Explain what the major organs in the human body are and how they work.

Chemistry

• Perform an experiment that shows a chemical reaction.
• Explain what has happened.

Geology

• Explain what minerals and fossil fuels are and how they are formed.
• Talk about the minerals found in your area.

Physics

• Demonstrate how sound moves through air, water or a solid object.

Estimation

• Make a sundial and use it to tell the time.
• Measure the height of an object using the stick and shadow method.
• or
• Find North using a non-digital wrist watch.
• or
• Find South using the Southern Cross.

Recycling

• Find out what new things are made from three different sorts of waste, which are recycled.
• Explain the concept of the 3R's
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

Pollution

• Help to clean up litter in your local area.
• Show an understanding of the "Greenhouse Effect", including what causes it and how you can help reduce it.
• State three other forms of air pollution, how they affect people and what can be done to reduce them.

Habitat Destruction

• Discuss how we can conserve our local environment including water, land, air, forests and mineral and fossil fuels.

Cub Scouts will be required to do any two of the following.

Performing Arts

• Perform a magic trick, juggling or a puppet show alone or with the help of one or two other Cub Scouts.

Visual Arts

• Produce a series of preliminary sketches and a finished peice of work ready for display.

Creative Writing

• Write a piece, which you contribute, to a goup or local newsletter.

Music

• Sing a song, which inlcudes verses and chorus,
• or
• Play your instrument at a higher standard to that demonstrated for your Bronze and Silver Boomerangs.

(no subject)

• Design a pratical item and produce it using any craft method.
• Show the design work and finished item together.

Home

• Show you know how to wash and iron your clothes.

Local Community

• Take part in a visit to a local place of interest and find out how it serves the community.
• or
• Meet or visit someone who lives or works in your area and find out what he or she does to help the community.

Local Organisations

• Find out about two charitable organisations in your community and what they do to help other people.