District News

By name and definition, these are Guides who want to be members of Guides Australia but for various reasons are unable to join an active unit. This might be because there is no unit operating within a reasonable distance of her home, or she is unable because of transport, health, disability, boarding school restrictions or family reasons to attend regularly at the time the Guide meeting is held. It may also be that a unit has closed down temporarily and the members of that unit want to keep on Guiding until is re-opens, or the girl may be on an extended holiday with her family, or the family unit is living in a foreign country where the parent is employed.

Lones were the "first off-shoot of the Guiding tree". In England, Guiding began in 1910 after girls had clamoured to become Scouts, and the organisation of a similar association for girls was put in the hands of the Founder's sister, Miss Agnes Baden-Powell. But Guide companies were few at that time and not everyone was able to attend meetings. Girls were continually writing to the Guide Office in London asking how they could join Guides.

Nesta Ashworth (nee Maude), who was a Guide working at the office and had helped at camps, was asked to work out a scheme for "Guides by post". Agnes Baden-Powell suggested they might be "Posties" or "the lonely ones", but it was finally settled that they be called Lones. This indicates that they are on their own, but does not mean that they are lonely. So a notice was put into the weekly paper, "The Scout" and thirty letters were received the first week. The new Lone Guides sent in lots of items to show their expertise at the Guide tests - Union Jacks, sewn, printed and embroidered, knots, pressed flowers, wood, bark, dried insects and, most embarrassing of all, the results of the Scout test "Be able to skin and cook a rabbit". By the time these were received, they were only fit to be buried, and this was done under a rose bush which thrived on its peculiar fertilizer.

The Lones Section played a very significant part then and has continued to make Guiding available to everyone who wants to become a member, wherever they live. At present in New South Wales, Lones operate as a Region, along the same lines as the normal regions, and follow the same syllabus as active Guides.
Communication is symbolised by the Rooster on the Lones cloth badge used on the Lones white camp scarf edged with red, blue and black binding, which refers to the coloured inks on white paper. The Lones Promise badge for many years had an "L" in the centre, indicating Lones but in the future everyone in Guiding will wear the same gold and blue trefoil.

Meetings are sent out monthly, mostly by mail, sometimes by tape and for the older Guides by E-mail. They include all the usual activities of a normal unit - bushcraft, service, traditional Guiding activities, craft, leadership and meetings with international focus. The Guides choose their own activities. Leaders facilitate the activities chosen and encourage every member to contribute. Leaders, too, provide support, materials and ideas. Some units have a newsletter so the Guides can see photographs and read what everyone else is doing for the current activities, but others include all this in the regular meeting. Replies are usually received from the Guides each month, but in busy school times or when family responsibilities demand attention, the girls' replies can be delayed. It is much harder for some Lone Guides to schedule time to do the meeting activities, some of which might need a friend or two to help, than it is for Guides to get to a weekly active unit.

The Guides also have a Lones Region magazine "Telopea", which is posted out quarterly to each Guide and Leader. The magazine presents news of badges earned, camps and international events, reports, plus input from the girls themselves.
When a Guide makes or renews her Promise, perhaps having moved on from one age group to the next, it can be done by phone, at a mutually agreed site or at a Lones Camp which are held every year or so. Guides are often welcome at any camps held in their own localities. Lones always enjoy their camps, when they get to actually meet their unit and patrol leaders, other unit members and Lone Guides from elsewhere. It is a time of fun and achievement, and Lones benefit enormously from such camps.
There are also units for the age groups below and above this age. Any enquiries should go to Guides NSW in Sydney.