Eumeralla Scout Camp

A man called 'Boss"
Harold E. Hurst 1888 - 1972
"a friend to all"

'Boss' Hurst and Scouting

In 1923 Harold Hurst was requested by Sir Alfred D Pickford to become the Scout Commissioner for this area and to develop the movement.  In 1924 he took the Geelong Contingent to the Wembley Jamboree where he was presented to King George V and Sir Robert, later Lord Baden Powell, Scouting's founder.

When he accepted his office as Commissioner there were two Scout groups in Geelong.  When he died there were fifty-four Groups.

One of his first achievements was the establishment of the original Camp Eumeralla, on the banks of the Anglesea River.  A brochure of the time bears the words on the cover  Anglesea Scout Camp - a famous boy's vocational training camp in the Otway Forest, - A camp with a purpose, a camp with a soul.  Constructed by the boys themselves and not run for profit." 

This was the first permanent Scout Camp in Australia.  This site was also where the first Lord Somers Camp was held.

By 1946 the original Eumeralla had out grown its situation, and had been encroached upon by the township, and a decision to sell was made.  Fate took a hand and the camp was destroyed by a bushfire.

In October 1946, the boys began to carve out a new Eumeralla out of virgin bush - about 1000 acres of crown land situated on the coast, between Anglesea and Point Addis.  Boss saw the new Eumeralla as a national park of Scout youth and visualised it as the site for a future world jamboree.

In 1948, $5000 was raised by public subscription to be spent on work though out the camp.  The scout numbers were 300.

Throughout the camp you will see memorials to Boss Hurst.