The Don Bosco Camp Holiday Programs have been running at Safety Beach for over 70 years.
Contact Us to be added to the Holiday Camp Mailing List to receive announcements, news and updates on all our Holiday Programs!
The holiday program consists of three types of camps:
Three camps run during the January School Holidays for young people 9-16 years old.
In 2025 they will be:
Junior 1 Monday January 6th - Thursday January 9th
Senior Monday January 13th - Thursday January 16th
Junior 2 Monday January 20th - Thursday January 23rd
Two camps run during the June/July school holidays for young people 9-16 years old.
In 2024 they will be:
Junior Monday July 1st to Thursday July 4th
Senior Monday July 8th to Thursday July 11th
Typically, our Leadership program is run during the first week of December for young people 16 years and above.
In 2024 it will be:
Saturday December 7th (starting 10am) - Monday December 9th (finish at 3pm)
The Don Bosco Holiday Camps are conducted for young people the summer and winter school holidays, making full use of our facilities and surrounding locations.
The camps are split into Junior (ages 9-13) and Senior camps (ages 13-16). An average camp will have 50-60 campers led by 20-25 volunteer youth leaders and are assisted by camp staff.
The four to five-day camps (the length changes based on the season and ages) consist of a wide range of icebreaker and team building activities to ensure that every camper feels welcomed and included.
All activities are planned and facilitated by the volunteer leaders to provide the campers the traditional, authentic camp experience away from life’s everyday distractions – these are the times where the young people have a chance to simply enjoy their childhood, irrespective of where they’ve come from or what issues they may have elsewhere.
The Salesian Youth Leadership program is fundamental to the mission of the Don Bosco Camp. We are committed to creating leadership opportunities for all young people/young adults for use in a wide variety of community settings.
The annual Leadership Camp is a week-long training course designed to provide leaders with a variety of tools, techniques and, most importantly, hands on experience in working with young people. It is designed to support, encourage and equip participants to be confident in their leadership abilities, so that they may then take their talents onto other settings such as youth groups, parishes, schools, sports teams and community groups.
Don Bosco firmly believed in peer-to-peer mentoring and leadership and it is on this model that we base our program. After completion of the leadership course, leaders are encouraged to participate as leaders on our holiday programs, joining our team and working beside more experienced leaders.
The Salesians of Don Bosco also have a variety of youth leadership opportunities available for young people, including retreats, youth groups and our annual Salesian Youth gathering, OzBosco.
For more information on Salesian Youth Ministry works, visit the Australian Salesian Website .
Don Bosco Camp Leaders are a team of committed and passionate young people who specialise in running holiday camps. Many of these leaders were originally campers themselves who had such a good time they kept coming back as they grew older, until they finally got to the age where they were old enough to attend leadership camp.
Now, with the skills to lead and a desire to give back to a the camp community that they got so much from, our leaders eagerly provide a joy-filled holiday to the young people of the next generation of campers, whilst also beginning the earliest hints of leadership training; leading by example.
All Don Bosco Camp Leaders work with the Salesian philosophy of friendship, fun and joy, walking beside the young.
Established in 1945, the Don Bosco Camp Holiday Program has many traditions such as special chants and games. Proudest of its traditions is that no camper is ever knocked back for financial reasons; we firmly believe that every child should have the opportunity for a great week on camp. We enjoy nothing more than providing assistance to those who would normally miss out, ensuring that they get to join us on camp.
From its roots as a bush camp by the sea, the Holiday Program has also developed a unique tradition and proud reputation of high-quality holiday camps that are run by dedicated volunteers trained in the Salesian Preventive System.
They emphasize the cornerstones of the Salesian Method: friendship, joy, freedom, presence and positive mentoring, especially through peer to peer youth leadership. At the Don Bosco Camp we are now receiving more and more stories of children who shared their camp experience with their grandparents, only to find out that they had very similar memories of the place – despite all the physical changes!
Don Bosco Camp is committed to conducting and expanding our high quality, affordable camps which offer the traditional Salesian camp ministry to all young people, especially the disadvantaged.
