The scouts of Australia are in a "black hole" because Buckingham Palace hasn't renewed the King's official patronage of the movement after the death of Queen Elizabeth.
It means that there are currently no King's Scout awards being made, and there haven't been since the Queen's death nine months ago.
Teenagers who pass the demanding tests now only get what Australian scouts are calling a peak award - without the valued endorsement of the monarch.
This will continue until the King becomes a patron of Scouts Australia as his mother was. It depends on the King "reactivating the patronage," Brent Juratowitch, Chief Commissioner of Scouts, ACT, said.
If the King doesn't do that, some other name will have to be chosen for the top scouts' award.
Until then, the scouts of Australia are in a "black hole," the ACT commissioner said.
Scouts are also in a limbo over the portrait of the monarch which hangs in halls across the land because no official portrait of King Charles has been published. The plan is to produce a special picture of the King in Australian livery but it hasn't appeared. What "Australian livery" consists of is not known.
The King's Scout award issue is not just a cosmetic matter.
Some universities count the Queen's Scout award as points in assessing potential entrants. Both the ANU and UNSW valued the Queen's award, according to Mr Juratowitch.
"They want students who have a rounded life and who haven't just been stuck in books," he said.
He is now having to write to universities verifying that a top scout really has passed the tests even without the monarch's imprimatur.
Scouts in Australia are also in limbo over the portrait of the monarch which hangs in scout halls across the land. Many halls retain the Queen's portrait and are awaiting an official portrait of the King. When it is finally produced, MPs will supply the new picture (as they are obliged to do).
According to the 'Constituents' Request Program' all Australian Citizens were eligible for a portrait of Her Majesty The Queen. It is not clear if that will continue with King Charles.
But their absence of the King's Scout award is the immediate problem.
Scouts proceed through a series of tests, gaining badges as they acquire skills, often skills of use in the outdoors ("in three core areas of bushcraft, bushwalking and camping).
When they become Venturer Scouts, they can then go for the top award, the Queen's Scout award - or now what would be the King's Scout award if it existed.
Scouts who passed the tests up to a minute before the Queen's death on September 8 last year. But scouts who have passed the tests from a minute after her death get a "peak award" without a specific name or badge. They do not become King's Scouts. The status of those who might have passed the tests in that two minute period around the Queen's death is unclear.
The formal statement from Scouts Australia says: "Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Scouts Australia may no longer issue the Queen's Scout Award in recognition of the achievement of the peak award in the Venturer Scout Section. Similarly, until King Charles III chooses (or not) to endorse a Royal Patronage for Scouts Australia we are not permitted to issue a 'King's Scout' award."
