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Australian Young Friends

Welcome to the Australian Young Friends web page. This is a place to find out about Young Friends in Australia, and for Young Friends to share information, thoughts, poetry or whatever with each other.

Young Friends are a group of people up to the age of thirty something who are involved in the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers. To find out more about Quakers visit the Australian Quaker Home Page.

Regular National gatherings

Yfs usually have 2 camps each year. One over the easter long weekend, and the other in the first week of january, immediately before the Quaker Yearly Meeting, which most yfs at camp go to. Easter camp is usually at Werona, Kangaroo Valley, NSW. The Yearly Meeting, and therefore the yf camp in january, is hosted by a different state each year. See below for where the next one is. Regional Meetings (states) usually have residential weekends that anyone is welcome to attend. These do not have business meetings like YM. They tend to have a theme, and this theme is explored in different ways in sessions run by different people. It is also a chance for people within each state to come to know each other better.
For information about YF things, your info is here, and your contact is the YF co-ordinator: . For info about Quaker events visit the Australian Quaker website: www.quakers.org.au. This will have people to contact, including regional meeting clerks.

Recent Events

Easter camp 2008 - Victoria
Easter camp will be in Victoria this year as there seem to be fewer YFs in Canberra and Sydney now. Hopefully people will still come from all around, but it will only be for 3 or 4 nights from Thursday (night) 20th March to Monday (day) 24th. Venue is the Scout Hall in Tawonga, back up near Wangaratta. Contact for more info.

Camp and Yearly Meeting 2008 - Vic.
Camp was in Harrietville in rural Victoria and Yearly Meeting was at Monash Uni in Melbourne. Here is the epistle for the camp. The Yearly Meeting epistle will be on the Australian Quaker website: www.quakers.org.au.

Events that happened a little while ago

Camp and Yearly Meeting 2007 - Tas.
Camp was at Piccanini Point on Tasmania's east coast, and Yearly Meeting was at Friends School in Hobart. Here is the epistle for the camp. Here is another one for Yearly Meeting.

Camp and Yearly Meeting 2006 - Qld.
We recently(ish) had our annual Young Friends camp and Quaker Yearly Meeting in Qld. Our camp epistle is here, and the Yearly Meeting epistle will be on the Australian Quaker website: www.quakers.org.au.

World Gathering of Young Friends - Lancaster, England, August 2005 (+wgyf Africa, oct 05)
6 Australian YFs attended the lancaster event, and are still alive. One of the 6 also attended the follow-up event in Africa, representing the Asia/West-pacific section (and is still alive). You can find out all about wgyf lancaster at www.wgyf.org. The website has the epistle from lancaster, articles and thoughts from those who attended, sound files of sessions, including the guest speakers, some photos, and some other things (its not updated but its there and good). To see and know things about wgyf-africa, visit http://wgyfafrica.blogspot.com/

Easter Camp - 'Werona' - Kangaroo Valley, NSW
This was last held over easter 2006. Easter camp happens every year at Werona, over the easter weekend. Check out the 2005 epistle here (I don't know where the 2006 one is lurking...). For more information contact the Young Friends co-ordinator via email: .

Backhouse Lecture

Young Friends have been asked to give the Backhouse Lecture in 2010.

Young Friends CD

The second Young Friends CD, "YF Only" was selling for $10 plus postage, but it has long sold out. If there is enough interest, we might just make a third, so let us know if you're keen. YF's fundraise each year to help us get to camps and Yearly Meeting. If you want to support YFs in their fundraising efforts or have any fundraising ideas, email (who may then pass it on to the current fundraising committee).

Young Friends Book

It's out! It's called 'footprints and echoes' and it's fabbo. It is a collection of creative things done by YFs that show how our lives speak. Contact your state coordinator (see below) to buy a copy. Only $10.

Young Friends around Australia

You can keep in touch and up to date with other Young Friends around the country by subscribing to the Australian Young Friends e-mail list (join here), or by getting in touch with other Young Friends in your area.
To read past epistles, go to PastCampEpistles.

Canberra Young Friends

This lot get together sometimes, and rumour has it they like each other. They could get to like you too. To test that theory, email Hannah C-S: .


Adelaide Young Friends

We haven't done much together recently but the attempts are gonna start again very very soon. The idea brewing at the moment is curry nights. If you want to join us we'd love to have you, and if curry nights don't appeal to you, tell me what does and we might just do it. email mary:

Perth Young Friends

There are a bunch of them, and they rock. They are a happy lot and hearing from you would make them even happier. For more info or some new Friends, get onto Grace: .


Melbourne Young Friends

They meet occasionally, and someone showing some interest might be just the excuse they need to have a party. They have far too much fun, and like people far too much, so you can't go wrong really. They also now have 'YF refugees' from places like adelaide and tasmania. I like to think they were kidnapped. However it happened, they've become quite the crew... Give AnnaW a hoy if you dare: (she's not that scary really).


Sydney Young Friends

Sydney yfs have ceased being the familliar affair they once were. Em is a keen bean there who would love to hear from you so she can fulfill her calling as sydney coordinator (sorry, i mean 'NSW YF liason') EmilyW: .


Tasmania Young Friends

There was one, then she left. Then there were a few others, and a couple of them left... now the past sydney liason has moved there, to be a teacher of all things. There are others too, and they're all marvelous. very much worth meeting. If you want to get involved, email jess dundas: .


Qld/NT Young Friends

There are now yfs in queensland. woohoo! The yf co-ordinator mary is still officially the liason for qld (and NT, where as far as we know there are no yfs at the mo), so she's the person to contact: .

Other
IF you are interested in going to a quaker meeting wherever you are, all the details of meetings in australia, and contacts, are on the Australian Quakers website, which is www.quakers.org.au. If you want info on Young Friends or camps, or anything else you think we might be able to help you with, email . You don't have to have any existing quaker connections, or feel like a quaker, but a bit of curiosity helps. It'd be grand to meet you.