The concept of Queensland’s Agoonoree was originally adopted from the Japanese, when in 1979 three members of the Scout Movement Peter Blatch, Geoff Doo and Andrew Dufficy attended the 3rd Nippon Agoonoree.
Peter, Geoff and Andrew then brought back these ideas, and in 1980 the first Queensland Agoonoree was held at Baden-Powell Park in Samford, Queensland. The Agoonoree has been held every year since with the exception of 1982 when Queensland hosted the Australian Jamboree.
Due to the global pandemic of Covid-19 Agoonoree 2020 was unable to go ahead.
In 2021 the Queensland Agoonoree celebrated 40 years of changing the lives of young people in Queensland.
World History of Agoonoree
The first agoonoree was held as an experiment in the summer of 1947. The following year a full summer camp was held at Gilwell Park, and the Scout Counties of Greater London have been holding Agoonoree camps ever since.
Originally in London, one Agoonoree covered the whole region until the mid 1960s, then the camp became two, with one for the Central and Southern Counties and another for the Northern Counties.
Helped by the staff of the London Agoonoree to get the ball rolling, other camps followed. For example, the Yorkshire Agoonoree has now been operating for more than forty years.
There are lots of suggestions about where the name Agoonoree came from. One is that it was invented by Dutch Scouts and is derived from the Greek word ‘agoon’ which means a struggle or contest, and that the ‘oree’ was taken from the word Jamboree to make it sound more Scouty. There is no factual basis for this claim!
Camp Chiefs
| 1980 – 1989 | Peter Blatch |
| 1990 – 1992 | Desley Clutterbuck (nee Auld) |
| 1993 | Des Sawyer |
| 1994 – 1999 | Ian Lightbody |
| 2000 – 2004 | Terry Rees |
| 2005 – 2011 | Michele Johnson |
| 2012 – 2015 | Melita Goff |
| 2016 – 2022 | Shaun Sandilands |
| 2023 – current | Libby Smith |