Lismore Pathfinder Club History
This will be an ongoing history of our club and how it has changed over the years.
Lismore Pathfinder Club
Lismore Club commenced during the 1960s but was not operating at the beginning of 1970 when Neville & Annette Leeson came to Lismore from Armidale. The club restarted that year when Neville was invited to be the leader.
The club has operated every year since then with a number of different leaders.
Neville recalls that during the 1970s, each year there were 2 club meetings per month, an outing once per month, one club campout per year and one Pathfinder Fair per year. In addition there was either a Union or a Division Camporee once every four years.
A typical club meeting (of 2 hours duration) commenced with a Flag Ceremony, during which unit captains presented colours (flags), & unit scribes checked attendance & collected club dues. Then followed a short devotion or guest speaker. Also during the first hour some of these occurred: honour study, first aid practice (bandaging), knot tying, lashing, drill & marching practice. Usually a short indoor game was included. For the last hour usually a number of different crafts were on offer, such as pop-stick craft, glass painting, basket weaving, pottery, leatherwork, wood-working, etc.
Outings included: climbing Mount Chincogan & Mount Warning; constructing a swinging rope bridge across a small body of water; making a coracle; building a kiln to fire pottery; completing swimming honours at a local pool.
A campout held at Page-Dhu’s mountain property at Rock Valley was memorable. We had free access to a number of tall saplings from which we created bush furniture such as tables & seats by using our lashing skills. We also made two 6-metre long bush ladders, and a tall look-out tower. While one group lashed together an “ambulance” on an old axle and pair of wheels (found on the property), another group bandaged a “patient” to be transported in the “ambulance”. As we were departing from the camp-site, a storm occurred and some of the Pathfinders chose to walk & slide down the mountainside – upon reaching the road below they were a muddy spectacle, much to their delight!
A number of years later we had a campout on a public reserve on the banks of Bungawalbyn Creek. We had intended camping there from Friday afternoon through until Sunday but on Sabbath afternoon a group of bikies arrived and set up close by, so we broke camp soon after Sabbath and travelled back to Lismore on Saturday night.
At Pathfinder Fairs we would exhibit some of the crafts that we had completed that year. At the Fair, Clubs would be judged on marching; & they would compete in various events such as fire-lighting contests (such as first to have their fire burst a balloon tied above it or first to make & cook a pan-cake), making & racing a “Fred Flintstone Chariot”, making & using ballistas to propel water filled balloons at the opposition club, first-aid events, knot-tying events.
Lismore Club attended the January, 1983 Division Camporee held on the banks of the Brisbane River near Ipswich. The weather was very hot & humid & took its toll on one New Zealand club where a number of Pathfinders were affected by the heat. Water events were very popular, particularly a giant waterslide down one of the steep banks into the river.
Neville Leeson was club director for most of the 1970s and up to early 1983, but did serve as the first Northern Rivers District Director for 2 years during the mid-1970. He was ably assisted by Ron Clack, Cal Chilcott, Myrtle Shelford, Anita Robinson & others. He served as club director with Rosalie Dyson for one further year in 1990.
Ron Clack promoted the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and took a number of groups on cross-country hikes. He recalls one hike with a group through the Border Ranges when one of his adult companions took a turn. While Ron took him to a nearby farm-house, some of the group members became separated from the rest of the group and were not re-united with them until early next morning. On another occasion one of the Pathfinders left his food out of his pack overnight, to discover next morning that a cow had eaten it. Ron recalls another time when, while they were hiking overland from Bentley to Jiggi, they temporarily became lost, but managed to successfully reach their destination.
On the long-weekend of June, 1990, the club participated in an Expedition in the Gibraltar Range area (west of Grafton). After Sabbath, on the Saturday night a Lismore group departed Base Camp and went for about an hour before striking camp for the night. A small party from Coffs Harbour camped near them. Next morning both groups continued following what they thought was the route, with the Coffs Harbour group veering to the left of the Lismore group. The latter successfully reached the designated camping spot for Sunday night by about mid-afternoon and were first to do so. One-by-one they were joined by other groups as they arrived, but no Coffs Harbour group – they had become lost. A search that night failed to locate them; so, next morning all clubs were directed to return straight to Base Camp and depart immediately for home. Helicopters were called in to assist in the search for the missing group. Eventually, after three days, they were located – they were safe but pleased to be found.
Information provided by Neville Leeson & Ron Clack Dec 2019