W. F. Waters

With Waters' encouragement, Victorian Rovers were amongst the pioneers of skiing in the state. These achievements grew from Waters teaching the Rovers the basics of cross-country skiing on a grassy hill.[12] Bill had already gained much experience in the new sport, having been a part of the first party to reach the summit of Victoria's highest peak, Mt Bogong during winter, back in 1928.[13]

The Rovers skied at Mt Donna Buang for many years until access to the better snowfields further from Melbourne improved.[14] In 1945, with the end of the Second World War, The Rover Section wanted to construct a memorial to those Rovers who had been killed during the hostilities. By November, £110 had already been raised and so Bill purchased the land on the slopes of Mount Donna Buang and began the planning for the construction. By May 1946, funds had doubled, and the framework had been assembled by Rovers. However the postwar building restrictions prevented the completion of Rover Memorial Chalet, Warburton until 1949.[15]

The Bogong Rover Chalet in 2005

The first "Winter Party", as they would come to be known was held in 1932, based at Cope Hut. Nine people attended the two-week-long adventure on the Bogong High Plains.[16] Over the coming years, the numbers attending the Winter Parties would increase, with participants from interstate also joining the Victorians in the early exploration of the area.[17][18]

By 1938, the size and number of the Rover Winter Parties were beginning to monopolise Cope Hut, as well as the nearby Wallace's Hut. Waters wrote to all Victorian Rover Crews and appealed for funds to construct a "Rover Hut" between the two huts. After raising £700, the Bogong Rover Chalet was constructed over five weeks in early 1940, in time for the ski season.[4]

The Rover Chalet is sometimes referred to as "the odd chalet out", because it is the only Ski Chalet outside the major Victorian Ski Resorts. This is for the simple reason that it predates the resorts, and at the time, the safest way to access the Bogong High Plain during winter was from Gippsland instead of Mt Beauty, as it has been since the construction of the Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme in the 1950s.

Waters also encouraged the efforts of the Yallourn and Moe Rover Crews, who were some of the first to ski the Baw-Baw Plateau, originally at Mt Erica. Beginning in 1934, the Rovers cut a number of ski runs and developed the area as a community service. In 1938, the Yallourn Rover Crew rescued two boys who had been lost in the snow overnight. Their parents arranged for financing for the Rover Crew to build a hut near Mushroom Rocks and it was officially opened by Bill Waters in 1940 on the King's Birthday public holiday.[19]

More and more Rovers began skiing in the area, until in 1946 the Rovers began to ski at Mt Baw Baw itself and the site of the current Alpine Resort. Bill negotiated with the owners of Neulyne's Mill for the use of some of their huts during the winter to accommodate the Rovers, although they still had to hike up to the snowfields from what is now the entry to the resort. From 1952, the Rovers were allowed the use of a cottage and the remaining huts. Public use of Mt Baw Baw increased over the next decade, leading to the establishment of the Mt Baw Baw Alpine Village.[19]

Bill's simple memorial on the Bogong High Plains

As soon as the Alpine Village was announced, Waters was back at work and he negotiated for the Rover Scouts to build their own purpose built Ski Lodge. The site was granted in 1964, and the W.F. Waters Rover Ski Lodge was officially opened by the Chief Commissioner of Victoria in 1967, shortly before Bill's death.[20]

Because of Waters' passion and commitment to skiing and bushwalking in Victoria's Alpine areas, his remains were scattered at a place he named Investiture Point, the closest place to the Bogong Rover Chalet at which it is possible to see Mount Bogong.[3] Over 250 people attended the memorial service on 26 April 1969. They were accommodated at the Rover Chalet, Wilkinson's Hut, Wallace's Hut, Cope Hut and in hundreds of tents along the Aqueduct between the three buildings. The service was led by Rover Scout Leader Ivan Stevens, and included the unveiling of a simple memorial to the "pioneer of bushwalking and ski-ing in this area", as well as an inspiring eulogy from Jim Blake of the Melbourne Walking Club.[21]

When Chief Commissioner Charles Hoadley appointed Waters as Headquarters Commissioner for Rovers, he charged Waters to focus on building up the outdoor side of Rover Scouting, using his experiences with the Melbourne Walking Club and Ski Club of Victoria to develop the young men as leaders in the Victorian bush. In 1930, the Victorian Rover Scouts' outdoor activities were largely limited to the competition for the Matthew Evans Shield, which was awarded for "best hiking". That would soon change.[22]

Waters set about developing outdoor adventures by organising them himself. In the November 1930 edition of Victorian Scout, the journal of Scouts Victoria, Waters published a list of activities open to Rovers from across the state which were to be led by experienced activity leaders. This list of activities would become known as the Fixture Card, and it included activities like bushwalking, skiing, surfing and rock climbing; as well as working bees at Gilwell Park in Gembrook. Eventually the fixture card would include social activities and lectures to meet the demands of the Rovers.

As the fixture card activities headed further afield, they became more popular, and would often attract Rovers and Rover Leaders from South Australia and New South Wales. Eventually, these trips became such a part of Rovering life that the minimum expectation was that each member would attend a minimum of six activities a year[22] – including at least two hikes, one skiing trip and one working bee. Meanwhile, Rovers were also expected to attend their own local District and Crew events as well!

The 1934/35 Jamboree was the first Australian Scout Jamboree, and the only one to be attended by the Chief Scout of the World, Lord Baden-Powell. As this was during the Great Depression, Rovers were employed to prepare the site, and the Rovers also played an important part in the running of the Jamboree itself, but by far their biggest contribution was the post-Jamboree hikes through to Gilwell Park in Gembrook.

750 Scouts took part in the hikes, led by 108 Rovers, while other Rovers manned the expedition headquarters and field hospital at Powelltown, as well as their own fire observers on Mt Donna Buang and Spion Kop. Other Rovers were engaged full-time with providing communications between the parties and expedition headquarters, which was a serious challenge at the time. The major obstacle however, was that while some of the area had been mapped by the military or the Forestry Commission, around 30% of the area that the hiking parties were to travel through was uncharted.[23]

Every weekend for over four months, Rovers traveled out to the area with prismatic compasses and theodolites to survey this area. Their information, as well as the information from the existing government maps were combined at Rover HQ. The master Rover map was the basis of maps of the upper Yarra valley for decades to come.[23]

During the hikes, Lord Baden-Powell resided at The Lodge in Gilwell Park and when the hike parties made it to the campground, he presided over a campfire. At the campfire, Baden-Powell praised the work of the Victorian Rovers in their contributions to the Jamboree, noting the hikes particularly, and saying that they were one of the best features of any Jamboree he had attended.[23]

Baden-Powell would later write that the Frankston Jamboree hikes were the biggest series hikes he'd seen organised outside the British Army, while Waters also wrote that believed Baden-Powell had presented him with the Silver Acorn largely in recognition of the Jamboree hike program.[22]

The Rovering community's interest in the outdoors grew, and beginning in 1936, they began to take an interest in maintaining the 20 abandoned huts at old sawmill sites in what in now the Yarra Ranges National Park, the forested mountains between Warburton and Powelltown. These 20 huts were within easy walking distance of each other and therefore were popular with Scouts and other bushwalkers as well.

The scheme was well appreciated by the Forests Commission of Victoria and the mill owners; while the huts' visitors' books were full of praise as well. The Crews which took on responsibilities for these huts were expected to maintain their hut, visit it regularly, and report on its condition to the Chief Warden at Rover Scout Headquarters. They also provided visitors' books, firewood and some basic utensils for people staying at the hut. Unfortunately, most of these huts were soon to be destroyed during the Black Friday bushfires in 1939.[22]

The Rovers of the Ballarat area also maintained a hut in the Pyrenees during this time.

Hosted by Victorian Rovers at Wonga Park between 27 December 1961 and 6 January 1962, the Seventh World Rover Moot was the first World Scout Event to be held in the southern hemisphere.[27] The event was attended by 970 Rover Scouts from all Australian States and 15 other countries.[28]

Waters was the Moot Chief, the man responsible for overseeing the operation of the entire event. With a team of Leaders from across Victoria and Australia, Waters worked for two years to create an event that would set a new standard for Rover Moots in Australia and around the world.

For the first time, the Moot program included a total of 48 different four-day expeditions to locations across Victoria, including Anglesea, the Bogong High Plains, the Buchan Caves, Lake Eildon, and Mount Buffalo.[30] One whole day was set aside for participants to provide service to the community. Some of the service that was completed by the Moot included clearing the Puffing Billy Railway line from Belgrave to Menzies Creek, clearing the grounds of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Home in Blackburn, building kennels and runs at the Lady Nell Seeing Eye Dog School and painting the Guide Hut at Clifford Park.[28]

The 1962 Bushfires swept through the Moot site on January 16 (only nine days after the Moot ended) and many of the Rover Huts, other outbuildings and even the landowners' garden were destroyed in the blaze.

Following the Seventh World Rover Moot, there was a worldwide downturn in the number of Rover Scouts, leading to an end to the Rover Scout section in the United Kingdom and many other countries. 30 years later, Victorian Rovers hosted the 8th World Moot at Gilwell Park, Gembrook over the summer of 1990–91.