Peter Garrett spent decades packing stadiums as the Midnight Oil frontman but, as a child,the rocker-cum-politician was more at home singing Scout tunes such as Ging Gang Gooli around a fire. It ,vas his time in Sydney's 2nd West Pymble Scout group in the 1960s that inspired a love for the bush, leading him to become one of Australia's foremost environmental activists. 'The one thing I took from the experience is a sense of how the environment shapes us and how important it is to look after it,' he says. 'You did get a keen sense of the bush, its beauty and its hazards.

Scouts are bushwalkers, and have been frontline witnesses to what's going on in our environment. Increasing levels of awareness mean we get better at looking after the bush.' The Scouts have been in a celebratory mood lately - they turn 100 this year and 2008 is The Year of the Scout.
'A favourite memory is heading up to the Central Coast of NSW with five other boys and deciding to take to the sea on a raft,' Peter recalls fondly. 'It was built by trying to strap timber from a container pallet onto four empty 44-gallon drums. And out we headed. We made, it until the first reasonable swell came through - it completely demolished us, but it was a lot of fun.'