The 1st Reservoir Group actually began as the 5th Preston “Reservoir” Group on the 3rd of December, 1948. The first meeting was at the PYPC Hall on Broadway, Reservoir – it’s not clear where that might be now, though. The local member of Parliament, Major William Ruthven, VC MLA, helped organise the first meeting of the adults who started the scout group. Ruthven Station on the South Morang railway line is named after him. There were also members of the city council at that meeting, who all helped to get the Scout Group going. The 5th Preston “Reservoir” Group had both Cubs and Scouts from the very start – the first Pack & Troop met in 1949. They all used to meet on Saturday afternoons. This means our Group is nearly 70 years old. Local parents donated camping equipment, a flag and flag pole for the cubs and scouts to use. By the early 1950s the group used to meet in the Boat House, just around the lake from today’s Scout Hall. For a long time, the scout group had no hall of its own, and had to meet in clubs and churches. In 1955 the Group was granted a block of land by the City of Preston, and so could begin to raise funds to build a scout hall there. By now the scouts and cubs called themselves the 1st Reservoir (5th Preston) Scout Group. By 11 December 1966 the group was formally known as the “1st Reservoir” group, and the present Scout Hall was established in Edwardes Lake Park.