The Church of England Boy’s Society commenced operations in Australia in 1913, when the first branch opened at the Holy Trinity Parish in Kew, Melbourne.

The Society proved so popular that it soon spread throughout many Victorian Parishes. The next year in 1915 a branch opened in Queensland. In 1918 the first Tasmanian branch was opened, and by 1940 there were CEBS branches scattered around five states in Australia.

By 1945 National membership had reached 4,500, and accordingly a National committee was formed.

The CEBS format, structure, and activities replicated the already existing secular Boy Scouts model. Each week, thousands of boys from Parishes across Australia, would meet together in groups, to play games, learn skills, work towards earn badges, and partake in a variety of ‘activities (that) are many and varied, some aimed at the general development of the boy, while for others the aim is to teach or develop a particular skill or ability such as sport, physical fitness, hobbies or arts’

The boys were divided into the following groups called ‘degrees’, which were formed according to the boy’s ages.

• LADS               6-7 years
• PAGES             8-11 years
• ESQUIRES    12-14 years
• KNIGHTS     15-18 years

The Society became very prestigious and attracted patronage from Senior Church officials as well as other well respected members of the Community.

The Society continued to operate successfully until the late 1990’s when complaints began to publicly emerge, that many of the Leaders had been involved in criminal sexual activities with the boy’s.

In 1999, the Branch Governor of the Magill Branch in South Australia, Robert Brandenburg, was found drowned in a local reservoir the day that he was due to appear in court to face charges of sex offences. Following his death, other victims gradually felt safe to come forward to report their own cases of abuse. With in months there were over 50 individual reports.

In other States, particularly Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, other CEBS leaders were also being reported and gradually it became obvious that there was a network of men who had operated in the Society as away to procure and abuse boys, all under the cover of the Anglican Church.