Scout's Cyclist badge certificate

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Certificates
Date: 22 March 1944
Place: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Materials: Paper
Collection: Barry Williams collection
Accession number: 2002.0059.0028

Description

Yellow paper certificate issued to Boy Scout Barry Williams from the 1st Surry Hills Troop for passing a test, which entitled him to the wear the Cyclist badge. The certificate was issued on 22/3/44. It is printed with a green drawing that depicts a rocky path with several totem poles behind it. The totem poles have representations of Scout proficiency badges on them and the path has an arrow marked on it.

About the collection

The Barry Williams collection comprises 53 items of 1940s scout memorabilia, including awards and items of uniform from the Surry Hills scout troop, Sydney. Awards such as badges, cords, shoulder tabs and dated certificates are a complete material record of the donor's progress from scout to king's scout. The collection contains the full range of awards available to scouts in the 1940s, except for two awards. This collection records a scouting experience that is typically Australian. The 1940s marks a stage of great popularity for the Scouting movement when they were a very visible presence in Australia. The Surry Hills scout troop was disbanded in the 1990s, the demise of the group was probably caused by the changing demographic and social values, of the people living in Surry Hills. This collection is a record of a past urban scouting experience in Australia. It is also evocative of some of the social changes that have taken place in Australia, that have contributed to the decrease in popularity, of the scouting movement.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:42:14 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-24. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.