History

Founded in 1941 in the UK, Outward Bound has since spread to 30 schools in 6 continents with nearly 2 million people worldwide having completed an Outward Bound course. 

Outward Bound's outdoor education courses are based on the principles learnt from training young British seamen to survive in the North Atlantic Ocean during the Second World War.

In 1941, the Blue Funnel Line was regularly losing merchant ships to German U-Boat torpedoes. The loss of life among thousands of seamen who went down with their ships was horrific. But there were also hundreds of preventable deaths among survivors in lifeboats.

Surprisingly it was discovered that the survival rate of young sailors in lifeboats was dramatically worse than that of the older and presumably less fit men. Lawrence Holt, Chairman of the Blue Funnel Line sought help from Kurt Hahn, a noted academic and educationalist and founder of Gordonstoun School. Hahn recognised that the young men had not yet developed an understanding of their own physical, emotional and psychological resources.

The older men were able to draw on their life experiences and inner resources to survive the hardships of the Atlantic in an open lifeboat.

To address this tragic problem Hahn founded the first Outward Bound School to educate the young sailors of the Blue Funnel Line to better handle the hardships they might face.

His program of experiential outdoor education raised the self-confidence of participants who later, when put to the test, were successful in saving their own lives and those of others.

From these unique beginnings, Outward Bound has spread to 30 countries throughout the world. Outward Bound Australia was founded in 1956 and since then over 250,000 Australians aged between 13-75 have completed one of our many courses.

Outward Bound Australia provides the opportunity for all Australians to build self-confidence, self-awareness and resilience, not just physical fitness. It uses the outdoors as the classroom to allow each participant to reach their potential in a safe and managed environment.