However, Ms Elwell-Cook’s discoveries in the NSW Girl Guides uniform collection have garnered international attention.

The Portland guide leader’s journey into the history of Girl Guides Australia began with a storm in 2015. Boxes of old uniforms were damaged in retail premises in Sydney. 

“I asked if anyone knew what to do with it all and they said no. And I just thought, ‘right, well, that’s what I’m going to do then’.”

Using her background in historic costume design, Ms Elwell-Cook began dating and restoring the uniforms. She began a masters at Charles Sturt University to support her archiving of the collection, for which she received a Dean’s Award in April.

The Peacekeeper

The very first box opened contained a rare discovery. 

“Me and my assistant both swore when we saw it,” Ms Elwell-Cook said. 

It was a Guiding International Services uniform belonging to one of around 25 guides in Australia dispatched overseas to aid people displaced by World War Two.

“They are so rare.”

Ms Elwell-Cook believes the uniform belongs to Joyce Stacey who was sent to serve in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. In Europe, scout and girl guide companies were part of the resistance to Nazi occupation.

‘The Lev’s’ Hat

A strange hat also surfaced among the boxes. It predates the inception of guiding in Australia in 1921. 

“It fell into the shape of the traditional scout hat, which meant it was made in England and made before 1913. But it had been transformed into a Guides commissioners hat,” she said.

The only person whose story fits the hat, according to Ms Elwell-Cook, is Nella ‘The Lev’ Levy. She joined a covert scouts patrol for girls at her private school in England in 1910, until they were found out and became girl guides.

When she moved to Australia she was a founding member of Girl Guides NSW and was appointed Divisional Commissioner in 1921.  

The first NSW outfit

An original NSW Girl Guides uniform has not been found. So Ms Elwell-Cook got around to doing that too, creating a replica of those seen in early photographs.

“That first uniform started out with a drill shirt and serge wool skirt. It was far too hot and too expensive. Very quickly the uniform changed to a linen shift dress and belt to hold it in.”

The replica includes all the hand-embroidered badges and decorations of a girl scout who had reached the highest rank.

“These uniforms shows the general public the impact girl guiding has had on girls over the course of nearly a century,” Ms Elwell-Cook said.

“We are only just starting dig into women’s history and histories of girlhood.”

Ms Elwell-Cook has also started poking around the Portland Girl Guide’s collection. 

“We have recently uncovered later uniforms while clearing the hall and we also found a first class Lithgow uniform from the mid-1960s.”

On the back of her work, the Portland local has been invited to train Guiding archivists in the UK. Portland RSL will host a trivia night on June 3 to raise travel funds. 

You can also donate to Bess Elwell-Cook’s trip online.